Emergence
by CheerfulChemist
Summary: This is an AU story. It begins in "Countdown" after the celebration in the conference room, but Josh really did go to Haiti and doesn't arrive to stop Castle from saying what he wanted to say to Kate. Of course, I own nothing Castle, but the characters still live in my mind.
1. Chapter 1

Emergence

Chapter 1

"You know, I was thinking," Castle told Kate as Agent Fallon strode away, "you and I need a better celebration than a beer with the boys. When I opened my eyes after they rescued us from that freezer, I expected to see Saint Peter - or his opposite number, not the face of some paramedic. And to know that you'd survived too…. And then when we kept that bomb from going off…."

"You kept that bomb from going off, Castle," Beckett interjected.

"It was a group effort and blind luck. Anyway," Castle continued, "after that, it seemed like we were making a new beginning. When we were in isolation, you said that you wanted someone who would be there for you and you'd be there for him, and you could dive into it together. I don't think anyone could have dived any deeper than we did, Kate. So, come home with me. Mother and Alexis are going to stay in the Hamptons until I call, and even then, with the traffic, it will take hours for them to get back. We could open a bottle of wine and sit by the fire and talk. I know that after our arctic adventure I could still use the warmth."

"I could too," Kate admitted. Alright, Castle, right now a visit to the Bat Cave sounds pretty good."

* * *

Castle handed Kate a glass of wine and gratefully sank down next to her on the couch. Kate shifted her body to face him. She was acutely aware that their knees were touching, but she didn't pull away. Even if she had just been trying to avoid freezing to death when they'd been locked in the cold storage trailer, it had felt right being in his arms, and physical contact with him was welcome. If anything, she wanted more of it, and for an entirely different kind of warmth. "Castle, where do we go from here?"

The backs of Castle's gently curled fingers were a feather touch against Kate's face. "Where do you want to go from here, Kate?"

"Honestly?" Kate queried.

"Please," Castle urged.

"Your bedroom. I'm just not sure it's a good idea."

"Why not?" Castle asked.

Kate raked her fingers through her hair. "Because we've just been through a near death experience together, three really. I don't know that I trust what we're feeling now is real."

Castle took both her hands in his. "Kate, for me, this has nothing to do with near death experiences. I've wanted you from the moment you walked into my book party, and not just as a muse, although you're a stupendous one."

Kate sucked in her lower lip, briefly nibbling the ample fullness. "When Natalie Rhodes told me that you refused to sleep with her; she said the way you write about me - about Nikki - is verbal masturbation. Was she right, Castle?"

"Natalie was very direct. I'm not sure I would put it that way. That's certainly not all it is. I have a truly impressive collection of periodicals for that purpose." Castle smiled crookedly. "I have to keep moving them to keep Mother or Alexis from finding them. But what I get from you, Kate, is more than titillation. You challenge me, and not many people do that. And you get under my skin like no one ever has. Even if I never wrote another Nikki Heat book, I'd want you in my life."

"And in your bed?" Kate pressed.

"Only if you're sure you want to be there. Regardless of how you describe my behavior, I'm not a teenager. I can wait until you're sure, Kate. I've been waiting almost three years. The choice is yours. It always has been."

Kate leaned toward him, over their clasped hands. "Then I'm making it," she whispered and brought her lips to his.

The slow burning fuse had reached the gunpowder. Need exploded inside Castle. He craved her, every inch of her. His lips found her neck, drawing the tender skin into his mouth. The taste of her only fed the flames. His breath coming in gasps, he reached for the buttons of her blouse, impatient with the sudden awkwardness of his fingers. Kate was eager to help, pulling her top open and unclasping the bra beneath. She plunged her fingers into his hair, guiding his head downward to where what had been freed from its restraints, strained for his attention. Heat surged through her veins at the touch of his lips and tongue. "Castle, Rick!"

He pulled back panting. "Tell me what you want, Kate."

"You, I want you."

Castle swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom, shouldering the door shut behind them. Even as he laid her on the bed, she tore at her clothes, then reached for his belt. Clothing was frantically dispatched, but even skin to skin wasn't close enough. The bedclothes tangled beneath them as they grappled, merging their bodies as they had so often unified their thoughts. Time and space faded in the tempest of passion that enveloped them. The final explosion ripped through their souls, leaving them both filled and drained.

Castle wasn't sure he'd ever be able to move again. With Kate beside him, he wasn't sure he'd ever want to. "You were right when you told me I had no idea," he murmured.

Kate burrowed into his side. "That makes two of us, Castle." She heard the sound of the front door and the unmistakable voice projection skills of Martha Rodgers. "Richard, we're back."

Kate's eyes widened. "Castle, what do we do? I know we can't shock Martha. She thought we were sleeping together after my apartment blew up. I think she was disappointed that we weren't. But what about Alexis?"

"Alexis knows there's such a thing as sex, Kate. She actually taught me a few things when we had "the talk." And she knows that her father is not celibate. I think she'd worry about me if she thought I was. But there are details she would prefer not to visualize. I feel the same way about my mother's intimate exchanges with her various inamorata. So, what we do is get dressed, smile, assure them that we're fine and that we're glad they're home. Or - you could hide in the closet."

"I'm not hiding in the closet, Castle," Kate insisted.

"Good. I just hope your blouse isn't missing too many buttons."

Alexis immediately threw her arms around her father. "I'm so glad you're all right!" She gazed at Kate. "I'm glad you're all right too, Detective Beckett."

Martha regarded the couple, her eyebrow rising. "Yes, you both look very well indeed. Alexis, it's been a long drive. Could you take my things upstairs for me?"

"Sure Gram," Alexis replied, picking up both her own bag and her grandmother's.

"Well, I must say it's about time!" Martha exclaimed as soon as Alexis had disappeared to the upper rooms. "I was beginning to think that you two would never get together. Now don't look at me that way, Richard. It is part of my craft to observe the subtleties so that they can be internalized and portrayed on stage. In any case, there's nothing subtle about the two of you. You have that satisfied radiance that's unmistakable. So, are you two finally a couple now, or was this just heat of the moment one-time sweating between the sheets?"

Castle reddened. "Mother!"

Kate looked up at Castle and offered him her hand. Entwining her fingers with his, she announced, "Definitely a couple."


	2. Chapter 2

Emergence

Chapter 2

 _One month later_

After wiping the last of the moisture from his face, Castle emerged from the bathroom to find Kate staring at her phone. "What's wrong?"

Kate tried to quell the tremor in her voice. "Mike Royce is dead. His body was found in an alley. We need to go."

"Wow! I didn't even know he was in New York. I went to see him a couple of times to get more stories as background for Nikki Heat. He told me he was going to L.A. to get his life together. He even sent me a post card with a picture of Grauman's Chinese Theatre on it, with a surprisingly upscale back address. It sounded like he was doing all right." Castle wrapped his arms around her. "Kate, as close as you and Mike were, maybe you should step away from this one."

Kate jammed her lips together and shook her head. "I can't Castle. This could be my fault. I haven't talked to Mike since I arrested him. He tried to call me yesterday. I let it go to voicemail. I just listened to it now. He said he was in trouble. He was begging me for help. Castle, if I'd just taken his call, he might still be alive."

"Hey, you have no way of knowing that," Castle insisted. "And Mike knew how to take care of himself. It had to be something pretty heavy to take him down. You might have been killed too."

Kate pulled free. "Cops are supposed to serve and protect, right? I didn't do either one. I need to make this right."

* * *

Kneeling beside the body, Lanie gazed back at Kate. "Girl, you shouldn't be looking at this. Castle, get her out of here."

"Lanie, just tell me what you've got," Kate demanded, pulling on a pair of gloves. Rick shrugged helplessly.

"It looks like he was shot in the leg and then tried to crawl away and hide." Lanie held out a bagged boarding pass. "This was in his pocket. He just flew in from Vegas yesterday afternoon. Lanie held up a folded sheet of paper, also in an evidence bag. And this was there too. It was addressed to you, Kate. I was going to have the crime lab give it to you after they went over it."

Kate turned away, pulled the paper out of the bag and read the words before replacing the refolded sheet. She swallowed hard and turned back to Lanie. "There's nothing here that is connected to his murder, Lanie, but maybe the lab can pull some trace." Kate handed the bag back to the M.E. "If there is something on it, the last thing we need to do is break the chain of custody."

Esposito strode up holding a gun. "We found the murder weapon, Beckett. It was thrown in a dumpster. Wiped clean, cheap crap, and no serial number. There's threading on the barrel. It looks like a silencer was attached. Those things are expensive. Probably cost a lot more than the gun. We didn't find one, but so far no one around here admits to hearing anything."

"In New York, no surprise there," Castle offered.

"The pistol was unloaded before it was dumped," Ryan put in. "No chance of fingerprints on the bullets.

"Maybe we can get something from ballistics," Kate said. "But I doubt it. Whoever did this didn't want to leave a trail."

* * *

Castle stared at the murder board as Kate pinned up Mike Royce's picture, the image of the gun, and the bag bearing Mike's boarding pass. "Why would someone put an expensive silencer on a cheap gun?"

"If Mike came in from L.A., maybe his killer did too," Kate speculated. "You can't bring a gun on a plane unless you're law enforcement, but a titanium tube in checked luggage wouldn't raise any red flags with TSA. Someone from L.A. followed Mike to New York, maybe even on the same plane. Mike flew coach, and he was in the back of the plane. If whoever it is flew first class and boarded at the last minute, he would have been behind a curtain and off the plane before Mike. Mike would never have seen him. Let's check first class passengers."

"On it," Ryan said.

"So, we have a killer who flies first class and can afford to throw away guns. That tracks with the neighborhood Mike was living in," Castle said. "Celebrities, and just plain rich, in that area. I wonder who Mike rubbed the wrong way, and how."

Ryan looked up from his computer and tore a sheet of paper off his printer. "First class passenger list," he said, clipping it to the board."

Castle quickly scanned the names. "Neel McCauley? That's got to be an alias. It was Robert DeNiro's character in Heat."

"Then that's our guy," Kate responded.

Ryan bent over his computer again. "Wait, he was on a return flight to L.A. Red Eye. He'd be back there by now."

Kate looked at Montgomery who had come out of his office to look at the board. "Sir, I need to go to L.A."

"The hell you do!" Montgomery responded. "You don't have one scrap of evidence that this Neel McCauley was involved in Mike's shooting, or even that it was anyone from L.A. That's pure speculation, Beckett. I expect that from Castle, not from you. You're a better cop than that. With your history with Royce, you shouldn't be on this case at all. I was going to let you try, but you're not thinking straight. We follow procedure. We scrub the traffic cam footage. We get the results from the lab. We get ballistics. We trace Mike's activities in New York. Then if the trail still leads to L.A, I'll bring the L.A.P.D. into it. You're no good here, Kate. Castle, take her home."

"But sir," Kate protested.

"I don't want to see either one of you around here for at least twenty-four hours until Beckett gets her head straight," Montgomery declared. "Better yet, Beckett, take a couple of days off. You've been running flat out with back to back cases ever since the bomb thing. Get out of here. Now!"

Castle put his arm around Kate. "Come on, Beckett."

Kate opened her mouth.

"Now!" Montgomery repeated.

Kate pushed away from Castle in the elevator. "Rick, I can't just abandon this case."

Castle shook his head. "Kate, don't you think I know you well enough to understand that? Listen, I have a friend with a private plane. I'll give him a call. No TSA. You can even bring your gun; no questions asked, no I.D. check. Alexis will be fine with Mother for a couple of days. We go to the loft, pick up some clothes, head for Teterboro, and we'll be in L.A. before the end of the day. Sooner, really, it'll be three hours earlier there. The studio has been after me to do a Heat Wave site visit, but our case load has been too heavy. I can show my face long enough to make the execs happy. They'll comp me a suite we can use as a base of operations right near where Mike was living. It will be perfect."

Kate reached up to brush back a strand of hair that had flopped over his forehead in his enthusiasm. "Castle, sometimes you still amaze me."

"Yeah, well sometimes I amaze myself. Let's get to L.A. and nail the bastard who shot your old friend."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Dear guests who are complaining the story isn't M; I think you are confusing M with MA. M is allowed on this site. MA is not. Here are the definitions that the site uses. **M: "** **Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with non-explicit suggestive adult themes, references to some violence, or coarse language." MA:** **"** **Content is only suitable for mature adults. May contain explicit language and adult themes."** I think it is obvious that I've used adult themes and some coarse language. I do not use explicit descriptions of sex, nor I am not permitted to. According to site standards, this story is an M, which is why I rated it as such. In the past, stories that have gone over the line, by other authors, not me, have been scrubbed from the site. If you want something more explicit, check out A03 or Tumblr. The authors there are less restricted. Enjoy! But don't ask me to violate the rules of this site and get myself tossed. I like it here. If you are a guest, and you complain about the rating, I will remove your review. That is not constructive criticism.

Emergence

Chapter 3

Kate regarded the car that was waiting for her and Castle at Van Nuys Airport. "An Aston Martin Vanquish? Really Castle? This is your way of blending in?"

"In the neighborhood we'll be tooling around in, absolutely, Castle replied, sliding behind the wheel. "Hey, Pierce Brosnan has one. A little touch of Bond?" he added imitating the Irish actor's accent. "And he did play a detective, or someone pretending to be a detective, with a beautiful and fiercely intelligent partner. It fits, Beckett."

Kate shrugged. "Castle, when it comes to the trappings of celebrity, I'm not going to argue with you. So, where's the hotel?"

"It's right near the studio. I called ahead. Maurice, the VIP concierge, is just amazing. By the time we get there, he'll have everything set up in our suite as the Twelfth Precinct West." Castle viewed the press of cars ahead. "Damn, I sometimes forget that the traffic in L.A. can be worse than it is in New York. Maurice will have more than enough time to get his job done."

"It's nice to have you back, Mr. Castle." Maurice waved a hand around the suite. "I hope you'll find everything to your satisfaction. Just call if there is anything else you or Detective Beckett require."

Castle handed the man a hundred-dollar bill. "Thank you, Maurice, we will."

After Maurice quietly departed, Kate gazed around the room. "That white board is bigger than our murder board. And there are more colors of markers, too."

"Check out the computer set-up," Castle said. "We can throw everything up on the big screen, and print out whatever we need." He wiggled his eyebrows. "And there are pleasures as well."

"Castle, I think we can save the dirty movies until after we finish the case."

"Kate, I was actually referring the Jacuzzi for two. It's been a long trip. But I do like the track your mind was taking."

"Castle, I'll think about the Jacuzzi later. Right now, we need to go to Mike's place and have a look around."

"Fine," Castle agreed. "Your carriage awaits."

* * *

Castle pulled up in front of an impressive home and rang the bell at the gate. "Shalom," a slightly gritty voice answered through the intercom.

"N.Y.P.D.," Kate said into the speaker. "We're here to talk about Mike Royce."

"Come around the back, to the pool," the voice instructed, as the lock on the gate released.

Gene Simmons raked his gaze over Kate. "When they talk about New York's finest, they're not exaggerating. You must be Kate Beckett. And Richard Castle, I recognize you from a book jacket. Mike told me he knew you two, when he caught me salivating over a scene in Naked Heat. Better him than my wife."

"And you're Gene Simmons." Castle extended his hand. "Always nice to meet a fellow sci-fi geek. I used to read your fanzines, especially _Faun_. I was sorry when you dropped out of the con circuit," Castle said.

"Well, you know, business called, and Shannon and I finally tied the knot, so something had to give. But Kate said you were here about Mike. Is he in some kind of trouble?" Simmons questioned.

"The worst kind," Kate replied. "He's dead. We're here because he was using your place as his address."

"Sorry to hear about his death. I liked him. I was at a party a few months ago. Stuck my tongue out at the wrong person. You know, it's all part of the shtick. But this guy must have been high on something. He just jumped on me. Mike was working a security gig. Guy was twice his size, but Mike got him off of me. Saved my ass. My guest house was empty, so I told him he could stay here. He kept the crazies out."

"We'd like to have a look around that guest house," Kate requested. "There may be something that can give us a clue to who killed him."

"Sure," Simmons agreed. "I'll get you a key."

Kate looked around the cottage which bore the marks of Mike's presence. Case files were spread out across a table. The edges of clothes hung out of drawers. "Either Mike is a slob, or he left in a hurry," Castle commented.

"He was a bit of a slob, but it mostly had to do with empty beer bottles," Kate said. "I think he left in a hurry. The reason should be in those files." Kate handed one to Castle and opened another one herself. "This is a profile of a celebrity ex-girlfriend Mike was hunting down. Apparently, when she left, she took off with more than her boyfriend's pride."

"I think this one might be more relevant," Castle offered. "Hmm. Mike takes very thorough case notes."

"He always did." Kate agreed.

"According to this, A guy came to Mike, a whistle blower. He works for an arms manufacturer, where the CEO was trying to sell a developmental weapon out from under the U.S. Government, to any terrorist group that would bid the highest for it. Mike found out that the weapons broker was doing business by the pool of a hotel. Apparently, he likes the view. Mike dressed up a member of the hotel staff, snagged the guy's glass and had an old buddy of his in the L.A.P.D. lab run the prints for him. Our entrepreneur's name is Russell Ganz, aliases including Neel McCauley. Major Crimes and the Feds have both been after him for years, but they haven't been able to nail him."

"But Mike was trying," Kate filled in. "After what happened in New York, he must have been looking for some kind of redemption. What did Mike do after that?

"I don't know," Castle said. "The notes stop there. Mike must have been made somehow, and he fled to New York."

Kate closed her eyes and shook her head. "Where he thought I could help him."

"Kate, you can't dwell on that. Just finish what Mike started. Let's just get something on this Ganz character that can be used to finally put him in a hole forever. We'll make sure Mike gets his redemption," Castle declared. "So where do we go from here, Detective Beckett?"

"Ganz likes the view at a swimming pool. I have an idea, Castle."

"Why do I think I'm not going to like this?" Castle mused.

"Don't worry, Castle, he'll never get to do more than look," Kate assured him.

* * *

Kate examined the swimsuits that Maurice had arranged to have sent up to the room from the hotel's exclusive boutique. She pointed at one. "I think this will do the trick, Castle."

"I'm liking this less by the minute," Castle grumbled. "That suit almost matches your flesh tone, Kate. You wear that; it's going to look like you're skinny dipping."

"That is kinda the point, Castle. The man looks at women in skimpy suits all day. I have to grab his attention."

"You'd grab mine," Castle said.

"Castle, I'll strut my stuff at Ganz's impromptu auction site tomorrow, but we'll have all night together first."

"What did you have in mind?" Castle asked.

"For a start, we could call room service," Kate suggested. "And make sure that we have plenty of ice."

Castle's eyes lit. "Are you by any chance thinking about that little trick you do with ice cubes?"

Kate batted her eyelashes.

"Then we can order dinner later," Castle decided. "I'll go fill up the ice bucket, right now."


	4. Chapter 4

Emergence

Chapter 4

At five A.M. Kate reached sleepily for her ringing cell phone. Castle stirred and grumbled beside her as Kate looked at the caller ID. "It's Lanie. She doesn't know we're in California. She's on New York time. Kate accepted the call and thumbed the speaker. "Hi, Lanie."

"Hey girl, sounds like you're sleeping in. Good for you. Javi said you're off Mike Royce's case, but you and Castle are the best with the weird stuff, and I have something very weird. I got a call from ballistics. When they tried to look at the bullets I removed from Mike, they dissolved. And when CSU ran the note Mike wrote to you, they found traces of the same stuff the bullets were made of on it. There's nothing to match it in the spectral library, Kate. It's some brand-new alloy. Tell Castle, if he isn't already hearing this, to see if he can wrap his head around this one."

Color rising in her face, Kate raked her bed-mussed hair out of her face. "I will Lanie, thanks."

"You're welcome, girlfriend. Let me know if you and writer boy come up with anything."

"Dissolving bullets, they must have been the developmental weapon Mike had in his notes," Castle realized, fully alert. "Maybe the whistle blower brought Mike a sample and something rubbed off on his hands or his clothes and transferred to the note. What was in that note, anyway?"

"Not much we don't already know, Castle," Kate said. "Anyway, it's in evidence now. I can share it with you when the case is over."

"I'm going to hold you to that," Castle replied. "And speaking of holding, now that we're wide awake, we can blissfully pass the time until it's a decent hour to arise from this splendid bower."

Kate rolled over to face him and teased a fingertip lightly over the soft sprinkling of hair on his chest. "Did you want to hold something of mine or did you want me to wrap my fingers around something of yours?"

Castle pulled her tightly against his groin, his large hands cupping her from behind. "How about both? But you don't have to limit yourself to your fingers."

"Mm," Kate agreed, "I can use a snack before breakfast."

"As can I," Castle responded. "Feel free to put your lascivious lips anywhere that pleases you."

"If you'll return the favor, Castle."

"Detective Beckett, that will be my very great pleasure."

* * *

"You know, Kate," Castle proposed, as he handed Kate a chocolate croissant from a generous early morning spread that room service had delivered, "now that we know a terrorist threat may be involved, maybe we should call Homeland Security, not that I enjoy the notion of ever meeting up with Agent Fallon again."

"Me either, Castle, and we may have to call him at some point, but I'd rather wait until I have something real on Ganz. You know how hard-assed Fallon is, and the first thing he'd do if we called, is talk to Captain Montgomery. "

"Point taken," Castle allowed.

"Let's finish breakfast and go scout out Ganz's favorite hotel," Kate suggested. "I can figure out how to stage my entrance when he's doing his business there."

* * *

Kate and Rick soon found out that accessing Ganz's favorite poolside during off hours was impossible without a room key. Castle rented a room, both to allow them entry into hotel facilities and to give Kate a staging area. There was also a view of the pool from their balcony, so they could note when activity in the area picked up. There were a few devoted swimmers in the pool as Kate and Castle examined the otherwise empty cabana area and the surrounding greenery, as well as the setup of the lounge chairs, at poolside. Castle pointed. "If Ganz wants the best view of the pool, he'll be over there. I would, had I not already found my Venus rising from the waves - I mean if a pool actually had waves."

"I'll make some for Ganz," Kate vowed, "enough to drown him. I think you're right, Castle. If I enter the pool from the far end and emerge slowly just in front of him, that should create the effect we want."

"The effect you want," Castle said. "I'd rather set up in the bushes and bug him with a parabolic mike or something. Less dramatic and less risky."

"And less likely to yield the results we want," Kate argued, "at least as quickly. I'll be fine Castle."

With a hotel robe covering the skin colored scraps that made up her suit, and sunglasses covering her eyes, Kate stood on her temporary room's balcony and watched the seating area she'd decided would be Ganz's most likely deal making arena. She saw a man cockily drop into a chair while women and attentive hotel staff buzzed around him. His cell phone was never out of his hand. Kate turned back to where Castle waited, nervously sipping a four-dollar soft drink and munching on twelve-dollar mixed nuts from the mini-bar. "Castle, it's show time."

* * *

Kate swam smoothly into Ganz's view, while Castle watched from the greenery that surrounded the pool. She emerged from the water, letting the moisture glisten on her skin and drip from the ends of the wet strands of her hair. She could feel, even before she saw, Ganz's heated gaze. She climbed out of the pool, her graceful gait accenting the motion of her hips just enough, as she moved to wrap herself in a translucent sarong, in a way that issued an invitation to remove the filmy garment. Watching, Castle pulled at his collar and sweated. Kate looked hot, too hot. She stretched out on a chaise lounge a few feet from Ganz, arching her back to lift her body toward the sun before she gazed his way with a look of obvious interest.

Ganz rose from his seat. "I like a woman who knows how to make an entrance. I haven't seen you here before. New to L.A.?"

"Not exactly an original line," Kate commented. "I come and go, depending on where my business takes me."

"So, are you here now, on business or pleasure?" Ganz asked.

"Perhaps a little of both," Kate suggested. "I'm Lola Black. I represent certain interested parties, Mr. Ganz. I'm told you have some very intriguing merchandise."

"If that is the case, Ms. Black, as beautiful as you are, your interests, as you call them, would have to make an equally intriguing offer, to draw my continued interest."

"I would not have thought otherwise," Kate responded. "Twenty million, wired to the account of your choice, on successful demonstration."

"There's already a demonstration video on the dark net," Ganz protested.

Kate made a mental note to have Castle search for it as soon as they returned to their own hotel, and the impressive computer array Maurice had provided. "That video is why I'm here, Mr. Ganz. But we both know that video can be altered. So, a live, in person demonstration, and twenty-million is yours, Mr. Ganz. Kate pulled a card she'd had Maurice arrange to have printed for her, from a well-concealed pocket in the sarong. "You can reach me here, Mr. Ganz. That number will be good for four hours."

"I will keep that in mind, Ms. Black," Ganz replied. "Now, I have other contacts to make."

Ganz returned to his chair and picked up his phone. Kate did her best to appear to casually absorb the sun's rapidly warming rays before she caught Castle's eye and they returned to their upstairs room, so that Kate could retrieve her street clothes. "It looked like he took the bait," Castle said.

"I hope so, Castle. Maybe I should have given him a bigger time window."

"No Kate, from where I watched, every move you made was perfect." Castle's fingers curled into fists. "Too perfect," he thought.


	5. Chapter 5

Emergence

Chapter 5

"I found Ganz's video," Castle called. "Oh God, Kate! This is brutal, horrifying!"

Kate came from the luxurious bathroom into the main area of their suite just in time to catch a time lapse of dissolving bullets, on the huge flat screen. "Run it back to the beginning Castle."

"Kate, you really don't need to see that," Castle warned.

"I do if I'll have to talk about it anymore with Ganz. Just do it." As the video began again, Kate pressed her fist against her mouth. "They're not using a dummy. That's a live person they're using as a target. And then just digging the bullets out of him and dropping them in a petri dish while he's dying. Castle, these people are monsters!"

"All the more reason to bring them down now, before they can torture and kill anyone else. We have to call Home Security, Kate," Castle insisted.

"You're right, Castle," Kate agreed, "but not Fallon. Ganz probably made the video in California, and if he agrees to my demonstration, that will be here too. He wouldn't risk discovery by delaying it to allow for travel time. We need someone from the L.A. office. I don't suppose you know a guy?"

"I might," Castle mused. "He wasn't part of Homeland Security when I used him as a consultant for a Derrick Storm book. He worked for the office of Intelligence and Analysis, but they were absorbed into DHS after Nine Eleven. He might be able to steer us in the right direction. I'll give him a call."

* * *

To Kate, Eli Nussbaum looked almost like an anti-Fallon. Slightly stooped with overlong hair and metal-rimmed glasses, he was more the image of a history professor who had spent too much time in a carrel in the library stacks. When he arrived at their hotel suite, Castle hugged Eli warmly, and offered him a cup of tea and a bagel with a schmear.

Eli put up a hand. "I'll take the tea, with lemon if you have it, but honestly Rick, after watching the video at the IP address you sent me, I have no appetite. Those bastards have to be stopped. Do you have any further intelligence?"

"I received a call from Ganz while you were on your way here," Kate responded. "He's set up the live demo for," she paused to consult her father's over-sized watch, "two hours and forty-three minutes from now."

"That doesn't give me much time to reach out and get things set up," Eli realized, "but there's an emergency protocol I can invoke."

* * *

Ganz's demonstration was scheduled to take place in a building not far from the Santa Monica Pier. When Kate arrived, decked out in an alluring palazzo pants jumpsuit which the amazing Maurice had quickly helped her procure, she saw a man tied to a metal chair that had been bolted to the floor. Ganz was there, flanked by a menacing looking African-American cohort. "Ms. Black," Ganz greeted Kate, "We are fully prepared to fulfill our end of your deal, I would assume you are the same."

"The funds, are standing by for transfer, Mr. Ganz," Kate informed him, holding up a phone displaying an account on a bank website Eli had helped to dummy up." She heard a "Go!" from a com, deep in her ear canal.

A squad of men in body armor and bearing automatic rifles rushed the building. The man next to Ganz squeezed off a couple of useless shots before being taken down. Kate trained her own gun, which she'd pulled from an ankle holster concealed by the silky fabric of her outfit, on Ganz, who had been shoved to a kneeling position on the concrete floor. "Mike Royce was a friend of mine, Ganz. You wanted a little action from Lola Black; you're going to get some from N.Y.P.D. Detective, Kate Beckett. Kate kicked Ganz in the balls, then strode away to join Castle, who had come in with Eli, behind the armed squad.

* * *

Eli thickly spread cream cheese on his bagel and topped it with smoked salmon, as he shared breakfast with Kate and Rick before they departed to fulfill Rick's obligation at the studio filming Nikki Heat, prior to returning to New York. "You two managed to bring in a really bad character," he said. "Not to minimize the importance of the murder of your friend, Kate, but once Ganz's minion started singing the blues, we discovered that the sale of the dissolving bullets was just the tip of an iceberg even more massive than our people had suspected. Back when he was in his early twenties, Ganz did a stint working for an oil company in the Middle East. He's been quite the evil entrepreneur ever since. The weapons he's sold have cost thousands of lives. He'll be remanded to one of our allies over there to answer for some of those deaths. What he will suffer, at their hands, will make the worst American prison, seem like a trip to Disneyland."

"You'll have to give me some details about that, sometime," Rick replied. "I might want to use them in a book. By the way, who was the guy in the chair?"

"First of all, that would be one hell of a dark book," Eli commented, "but to your question, he was the CEO of the company that made the bullets. Once Ganz had the merchandise, he didn't need him anymore, so he was tying up a loose end. Two birds with one dissolving bullet, so to speak. Our military will be negotiating a contract with his successor. The victim in the video was an associate who had flubbed a previous operation." Eli extended a hand to Kate. "Detective Beckett, once again, my sympathies on the death of your friend, but you can be assured that it was not in vain." Eli nodded at Castle. "Always an interesting experience Rick, but next time you put a character based on me in one of your books, could you at least make him good looking, or better yet, irresistible to women?"

Castle grinned and firmly grasped Eli's shoulder. "You've got it, old friend."

"Oh, and Detective," Eli added, "Homeland will send a report to your captain giving as few details as possible, but naming Ganz as the perpetrator as Mike Royce's death, with the declaration that DHS took jurisdiction for National security reasons."

Kate shook her head. "Captain Montgomery won't like that, but at least he'll be able to put the case to bed. Thanks, Eli."

* * *

"You don't have to do this, Kate," Castle said, as he and Kate descended the stairs to the basement of the precinct. "If what Mike wrote to you was too personal, I won't hold you to your promise."

"Castle, that is sweet, but I want you to see it."

Kate retrieved Mike's note, slightly the worse for wear from CSU's testing, from the evidence archives. She handed it to Castle, and he scanned the contents. To the last, Mike Royce had been trying to be a mentor and friend to Kate. Castle studied the last few sentences, hearing Mike's raspy voice in his mind. He refolded the paper and turned to his lover, caressing her face. "I agree with Mike that you and I have something real Kate, and I hope you agree too. Thank God, you're no longer fighting being together, or at least I hope you're not. Life really is too short for 'if onlies,' isn't it?"

Kate wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest. "Yeah, Babe, it is."


	6. Chapter 6

Emergence

Chapter 6

"Kate, are you sure you want to go see Lockwood arraigned for killing McCallister?" Castle questioned. "You won't be called to testify. You didn't see him do it."

"It doesn't matter, Castle," Kate insisted. "Something went terribly wrong that allowed Lockwood to be in the general population so he could reach McCallister. Whoever was responsible for that might show up at the arraignment, or have an agent there. I need to study every face and evaluate every bit of body language."

"Alright," Castle conceded, "but I want to go with you. Two pairs of eyes are better than one."

"I appreciate it, Babe. But we need to get going. I want to get the best vantage point that I can."

* * *

Despite Kate's best efforts at haste, she and Castle were seated several rows back in the gallery. Kate scanned the courtroom. "Something doesn't feel right, Castle. I just can't put my finger on it."

"There is quite a sea of blue in here," Castle noted, "especially since besides John Raglan, McCallister didn't have any friends."

"You're right, Castle." Kate shifted her gaze back to the row of cops in the seats in front of them. "That's it, Castle! The uniforms are wrong. The pins are chrome instead of brass, like costumes! Those aren't real…." Canisters rolled down the aisles of the courtroom. "Down!" Kate shouted, pushing Castle to the floor. The canisters exploded with deafening sound and blinding light.

Castle read Kate's lips rather heard her frantic inquiry as to whether he was all right. He nodded vigorously, shouting, "Go!" The faux cops had loosed Lockwood's shackles and were hurrying him out of the courtroom.

Kate pursued, with Castle close behind her, into a stairwell that led to the roof. A helicopter was just touching down, the din from the blades adding to the ringing in their ears. Hard-eyed, Kate aimed her weapon at Lockwood as he clambered aboard. "Stop!"

Kate could see Lockwood mouth, "Sorry, Sweetheart," and blow her a kiss, as the helicopter lifted off. Kate fired every bullet in her gun, but the helicopter disappeared into the sun.

Kate sank to the stony surface of the courthouse roof, drawing her knees up and pillowing her head on her arms. Crouching, Castle wrapped his arms around her, murmuring comforting words that neither of them could hear.

* * *

"At least the doctor said that neither of us is likely to have much permanent damage to our hearing," Castle remarked, as he and Kate left a suite of medical offices.

"Castle, that's not much consolation," Kate said. "I've lost my only connection to my mother's murderer."

"No, you haven't Kate," Castle argued. "We have a bunch of new ones; everyone linked to Lockwood's escape. There has got to be security footage of the men who helped Lockwood get away. We can run facial recognition on those. I got the tail number of the helicopter. That should be traceable too. Then there's whoever signed off on allowing Lockwood to be placed in the general population at Rikers. The boys are working on that too, right? If anything, we have a lot more than we did before Lockwood escaped. He was never going to talk anyway, or you would have broken him. Whoever is behind this whole ugly conspiracy, made a mistake in helping Lockwood to escape. He would have been better off just taking him out, too. So, we do what we always do, squeeze every lead until something pops. And there's no one better at squeezing than you." Kate leaned her head into Castle's shoulder for the short walk to her unit.

* * *

"We've got good news and bad news," Ryan announced as Kate and Castle stepped off the elevator at the Twelfth Precinct.

"Give me the good news first," Kate requested.

"We found out who had Lockwood transferred," Esposito announced. "It was a correctional officer named Ryker."

Castle snorted. "The one making goo-goo eyes at you until I started going with you to visit Lockwood. I never liked that guy."

"Which brings us to the bad news," Ryan chimed in. "Neither did whomever Ryker was working for. When he didn't show up for work, we sent unis to his place to pick him up. He was dead, a bullet right between the eyes. CSU is still going over Ryker's apartment, but so far, they haven't turned up any prints but Ryker's. The hit looked professional."

Kate's jaw clenched as she shook her head. "Lockwood, tying up loose ends again. There goes one of our leads, Castle."

"So, we follow all the others, Kate. Ryan, do we have the video from the courthouse?"

Ryan nodded. "Tech is scrubbing it now."

"Then we track down the helicopter, and whoever owns it or rented it," Kate decided. "Castle can you…?" She stopped as she realized that Rick was already writing the aircraft's ID number on the board.

* * *

"The helicopter is part of a fleet of them leased by a Super PAC run by the king maker himself, Ben Moss?" Castle questioned.

"That's right," Kate confirmed. "They reported it stolen half an hour before it was used to pick up Lockwood."

"How convenient," Castle observed. "Do you believe it was really stolen, Kate?"

"I don't know, Castle," Kate replied. "Why would a helicopter from a political action committee, especially one as big time as that, be used to help a killer escape?"

"Because they're backing whoever is behind this," Castle asserted. "Look, Kate, McCallister told you that you woke the dragon. To find someone at the prison who could be manipulated and killed, to set things up at the courthouse, that takes a lot of power, a lot of juice. That means a highly placed political figure of some kind, someone with the ambition to rise from dealing with dirty cops. Super PACs, if unofficially, back candidates, Kate. We look for a candidate whom Ben Moss is backing, who would have been in New York at the time that Raglan and McCallister were operating. He's our dragon."

Kate sighed. "Castle, that's pretty thin."

"If you have something better, I'd love to hear it," Castle said.

"At least until Tech can get something off that video, I don't," Kate admitted.

* * *

Kate massaged Castle's shoulders as he bent over a computer screen. "How are you doing, Babe?"

Castle reached back to stroke her hand. "Super PACs are deliberately obtuse. Since they are theoretically not allowed to directly supports a candidate, they bury things in all kinds of causes which have multiple adherents. Moss has been supporting environmental issues, which is strange in itself since some of his companies are the biggest polluters around, but I've been tracing whose legislative agendas he's been pushing. That's a wagon a lot of politicos at least pretend to be on, but our junior senator from New York has jumped aboard it with a mighty leap. And Kate, he was a district attorney in New York at the time Raglan and McAllister were running their little racket. Then he got a sudden infusion of cash from somewhere and ran for Congress. He's been a rising star ever since."

"You mean Senator William Bracken, Castle? I voted for him."

"Yeah, so did I," Castle confessed. "And I wish I could take my vote back. Kate, I think Bracken is your dragon."

"Castle, even if you're right," Kate asked, "how the hell are we going to prove it?"

"Beckett," Ryan called across the bullpen, "Tech's got something from the video."

"Maybe that's how," Castle hoped.


	7. Chapter 7

Emergence

Chapter 7

"Show them what you've got, Li," Ryan instructed the young man at the keyboard in front of the large screen, as Kate and Castle followed him into Tech.

"It is clear that that the men who helped Lockwood escape knew where the cameras were," Li explained. "They always kept their faces turned away from them. But, I was able to catch a reflection in the glass covering the emergency fire hose, at the entrance to the stairs. I could only get an image clear enough to get an identification on one of them." He brought a picture of a tall, graying man, up on the screen. "His name is Thomas Mallory. He was suspected of being an operative for Vulcan Simmons' drug ring. He was charged but never convicted."

"Alright," Kate declared, "we are going to get everything on Thomas Mallory, all associates, girlfriends, boyfriends, job history, anything that's out there - and especially any political connections."

"You've got it, Beckett!" Ryan responded.

"Kate," Castle said, as they walked back into the bullpen, "I'm going to work backward from Bracken; see if I can find an intersection between him and Mallory."

"Okay, Castle," Kate agreed. "I'm going to check on the legal proceedings against Thomas Mallory, see how he got out of those drug charges."

* * *

Shoulders stiff and feet dragging, Castle handed Kate a mug of coffee and sipped at one he'd brought for himself. "You have anything, Castle?" Kate asked as she inhaled the fragrant vapors from her cup. "I mean besides the coffee. This is wonderful, Babe."

"Thanks. I'm not sure whether to consider it a real connection, Kate. At the time Thomas Mallory was arrested, Bracken was working as a law clerk in the D.A.'s office, but I don't know if they even crossed paths."

"It's a connection, alright." Kate asserted. "The reason Mallory was never convicted was that some paperwork was misplaced in the D.A.'s office and the judge was forced to dismiss the case. Bracken could easily have made that happen. After that, he moved up to A.D.A., then D.A., before he ran for Congress. Raglan and McCallister ran their shakedown while Bracken was D.A. There were criminal complaints filed against those two, but the investigations were abandoned before any charges could be brought. It looks like pressure was brought to bear on IA to drop any investigation against those two, as well. But that still doesn't explain why my mother was killed years later or why Bracken would order it. We're still missing a lot here, Castle."

"Your mother was a civil rights attorney, right?" Castle queried. "She looked into cases where there were miscarriages of justice."

"Yes, that was her passion," Kate confirmed.

"So where would there have been more miscarriages of justice than in a department run by a crooked D.A.?" Castle offered. "Do you have your mother's papers? Can we go back and look at what cases she was pursuing at the time of her death?

"Yeah Castle. Thank God, a lot of that stuff has been in storage at my Dad's place, or it would have been destroyed by the fire from the explosion Dunne set at my old apartment."

"Then maybe we should go see your father," Castle suggested. "Does he know you're with me, now?"

"Yeah, he does, Castle, but I'm not sure how he feels about the idea. Because…."

"Because what?" Castle asked.

"Because, when I went to question you at your book party, it was not the first time we met."

Castle raised an eyebrow. "Kate, I think I'd remember."

"Not unless you would remember a nineteen-year-old girl who was one of a horde of adoring fans who'd waited for an hour to get their books signed. The line was so long, and you were signing so fast, you barely looked up at me. You just asked for my name and gave me that signature Castle smile."

"Clearly, I was an idiot," Castle declared.

"I didn't think so, but my Dad didn't like the idea of his grieving daughter having a crush on the author of pulp novels, although you were a big step up from the musicians in some of the bands I'd followed."

Castle smiled crookedly. "Yeah, I guess coming out on top in that comparison is better than nothing. Let's go beard the lion in his den."

Kate checked the time. "If you want him to like you, we'd better get there before the game starts."

* * *

"Katie, are you really sure you want to do this?" Jim Beckett questioned. "The last time you went through your mother's things it tore you to pieces."

"Dad, I'm okay, really," Kate assured him. "Castle has helped me figure out who was behind her murder. Now we're looking for proof to bring him down. I've never wanted anything more in my life."

"Alright," Jim agreed, his doubt still clearly evident in his eyes, "I have files of all her papers."

* * *

Castle sucked on a paper cut on his thumb. "It would have been too much to hope for that these would be chronological rather than alphabetical order. And your mother used some really strange shorthand in her notes. I've never seen anything like it before."

"Mm," Kate agreed. "She did that to protect her clients in case her notes were subpoenaed for discovery, but the dates and names are readable. She just didn't want to turn over her work product."

"You certainly have the lawyer lingo down," Castle observed.

"Two lawyer parents," Kate reminded him. "And I was pre-law at Stanford, Castle."

"If not for your mother's death, you would probably be well on your way to being a female Alan Dershowitz," Castle speculated.

"More like John Roberts," Kate corrected. "I wanted to be the first female chief justice."

"And now?" Castle queried.

"I just want justice, Castle. Justice for my mother and every victim like her."

"And you'll get it, Kate," Castle assured her. "Oh, look at this! It's in the right time frame, and there's a name, Pulgatti. There's a picture here too, but it's just of an empty alley."

Kate grabbed for the photograph. "Castle, this is a picture of the alley where my mother was killed. She must have been investigating something that happened there. But what?"

"Maybe this Pulgatti, whoever he is, can shed some light on the case," Castle suggested.

"Dad might know," Kate considered. "He and Mom talked about their work a lot. I loved that about them. Sometimes they'd put their heads together to figure things out. They'd come up with theories and finish each other's sentences."

"You mean like we do?" Castle asked.

Kate nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess it was a lot like we do, Castle. I never thought about that before. Let's go ask him."

* * *

Jim Beckett sucked his lower lip beneath his front teeth in a way that eerily reminded Castle of Kate. "Yes, I remember your mother mentioning a Pulgatti. I didn't think he was worth her time. He was a mob enforcer. Probably committed at least several murders, but your mother thought he'd been railroaded on the charge that finally stuck. She was looking into it just before she was killed. Pulgatti was serving a life sentence. He's probably still at Rikers."

"If he is, I need to go see him," Kate decided.

Castle put a hand on her arm. "We need to go see him, Kate."


	8. Chapter 8

Emergence

Chapter 8

Joe Pulgatti gazed at Kate in amazement. "When you first walked in here I thought I was seeing a ghost. You look so much like Johanna Beckett. But you must be her daughter. She was so proud of you; she was sure you were going to take the legal world by a storm. But I heard you became a cop, right?"

"Right, Mr. Pulgatti. Detective Kate Beckett. It sounds like you knew my mother pretty well."

"Your mother was my angel, Detective Beckett. When I was forced to confess and sent here, I wrote to hundreds of lawyers. Your mother was the only one who answered. She didn't care who I was. She just wanted to get to the truth. She just never lived long enough to do it. Damn shame, for me, for you, for the whole damn city."

"Mr. Pugatti, that's why we," Kate waved at Rick, "this is Richard Castle, are here. We believe your case might have been connected to my mother's death."

"Oh yeah, Richard Castle. Got a hold of a couple of your books." Pulgattti gave Castle a thumb up. "Sexy! I can see where you got your inspiration, but damn straight, Detective, your mother's death was connected to my case. I was sent up for killing a guy named Bob Armen. I found out later, he was an undercover FBI agent. The prosecution claimed it was part of a war between the families. The thing is, there was no war. We were in full truce. These guys were going around back then, running an extortion ring. They'd kidnap soldiers from all the families, beat 'em up and hold them for ransom. They called it bail. The families were uniting against them. Bobby Armen played his part well. We were friends. No one even suspected he was a cop. He and I were out in the alley where he was killed, just having a smoke, when these two guys wearing ski masks drive up in a van. They tried to grab Bobby, but he grabbed for one of their guns, and it went off. They just took off after that. But then this N.Y.P.D. cop, John Raglan, comes to arrest me for Bobby's murder. And the D.A., he has some phonied up evidence, a witness who claimed to have seen me in the alley that night. But there were no witnesses. The only people in the alley that night were Bobby, me, and the two kidnappers. So how did Raglan know I was there?"

Kate nodded. "Because he was there. He was one of the kidnappers. And I believe he colluded with the D.A., William Bracken, to set you up."

"Bracken practically admitted it," Pulgatti said. "He told me that he could put together as much evidence as he needed to convince a jury, but if I'd confess, he' take the death penalty, they used it in New York back then, off the table. Given a choice between a life sentence and the needle, I took the life sentence. You mother was my only hope of getting out of here."

"Maybe not the only hope, Mr. Pulgatti," Kate said, "my mother is not the only one who is interested in the truth."

"Then watch yourself, Detective, and you look out for her too, Mr. Castle," Pulgatti cautioned. "I'd hate to think of that sonofabitch Bracken taking out another beautiful Beckett."

"I have no intention of letting that happen, Mr. Pulgatti," Kate promised.

* * *

Castle felt a chill as he and Kate returned to her unit for the drive back to the precinct. "Kate, maybe you should pull away from this case. Lockwood is still out there. He took out Raglan. He took out McCallister. If it gets out that you're getting too close to his boss, he could take you out too. Ryker might not have been Bracken's only connection at the prison. That we were here, that we visited Pulgatti, will be a matter of record. Bracken could put two and two together."

"Even if I could step back from this case, and there's no way I can," Kate argued, "it would be too late. If Lockwood tries to come after me, let him. We'll take him down. He'll just be one more piece of the puzzle I need to put together to nail Bracken. But from what Pulgatti said, there had to have been more cops involved in that extortion ring than just Raglan and McCallister. Just the two of them couldn't have terrified the families that much. We need to look for others cops who had complaints against them mysteriously dropped, or whose financials didn't match their salaries."

"Nineteen years ago, Kate? That's a few needles in a hell of a big haystack. Police records weren't even digitized then, were they?" Castle asked.

"You have a point, Castle. So maybe we look at it another way. Maybe Raglan and McCallister weren't the only former cops that Bracken had taken out, by Lockwood or another contract killer. We know that Bracken used Jack Coonan to kill my mother. Since Coonan was dead, we never investigated his other transactions, but we have a bank account on him, from when you wired him that hundred thousand dollars. We should be able to get more records than that. There must be a money trail back to Bracken."

"And there's Thomas Mallory too," Castle reminded her. "There's still a BOLO out on him."

"He's probably gone to ground," Kate said, "But we could get lucky. Or he might emerge from the shadows with Lockwood to come after me."

Castle shuddered. "Kate, I don't even want to think about that, but Montgomery should put a protective detail on you. I'm going to talk to him about it."

"Castle, don't you dare! If Bracken sends someone after me, collaring and flipping them would be our easiest way to nail him."

Castle grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. "Not if you're dead, Kate. Remarkable as you might be, you're not Wonder Woman, you don't have any magic bracelets to fend off bullets."

"Castle, would you feel better if I put on one of those Kevlar vests that can fit under my clothes?"

"Not much. You could still get shot in the head, like Ryker, but it's better than nothing."

* * *

William Bracken looked up when Joey Logan knocked on the door frame of the office he kept in his Westchester home. "What?"

"Kate Beckett and that writer who follows her around just paid a visit to Pulgatti."

"What the hell!" Bracken exclaimed. "I should have had that lowlife shanked when I was trimming off the other loose ends. Damn! She must have made the connection to her mother's death. I hate to take out another cop right now, especially one that beautiful. It will raise too many questions. But she's getting too close. No shooter. We'll have to arrange an accident. And we need to take out that writer too. If she's putting things together, he'll know what she's thinking."

"What did you have in mind, boss?" Joey asked.

"I'll have to think about it, but it will have to be soon," Bracken said. "No single car accidents. It's too easy to investigate the forensics. Get Mallory. I'll want to use him. I'll let you know when I have a plan."

"Yes sir," Joey agreed and pulled out his phone as he left the room.


	9. Chapter 9

Emergence

Chapter 9

"Is everything set?" Bracken asked Joey Logan.

"Yes sir," Joey responded. "Mallory got the regular guy out of the way, so we have the vehicle. I'll have it in place tonight. A piece some reporter did on Beckett and Castle said they are practically addicted to that crap. Sooner or later, they'll get close and all I'll have to do is set the countdown and get out of there. Horrible accident, such a shame."

"Yes," Bracken agreed. "I'll issue a solemn statement about a terrible loss and call for raising safety standards to prevent another tragedy. It will be right along the lines of my official agenda to serve the people, and keep me in front of the voters as the guy looking out for their interests. I'm going to put it together right now so I'll have it ready to go."

"You do always think a step ahead sir," Joey observed.

"That's the only way to survive, Logan," Bracken declared. "Stay out front of threats to the future, even when they come from beautiful police detectives."

* * *

Kate looked up from the petitions she was filling out to obtain bank records, and rubbed her eyes. She turned to an equally bleary Castle who was sifting through a mountain of old police reports. "Feel like catching the Comfort Food Truck?"

"Are you kidding?" Castle replied. "Macaroni and cheese, hot chocolate; right now that might be all that will keep body and soul together."

Kate approached the truck as Castle grabbed a table at the nearby eating area. She noticed the usual guy was not behind the counter. "What happened to Manny?" she asked.

"His wife is having a baby. I'm his cousin George," Joey Logan explained. "He asked me to fill in for him tonight."

"Give him best wishes from Kate," Beckett said. "Two macaroni and cheeses, two hot chocolates with extra marshmallows and an order of biscuits and gravy."

"Coming right up," Joey replied. "That will be eighteen-fifty." Kate handed Joey the money. He rapidly assembled the food on a cardboard tray and gave it to her. "Listen, I hate to ask, and it's probably unnecessary, right next to a police station, but could you watch the truck for a second? I really need to make a pit stop."

"Sure," Kate answered. "I've done enough stakeouts to know the feeling."

"Hey, you haven't taken your eyes off that truck," Castle noted as he eagerly dug into the food Kate had brought to the table.

"Yeah, George asked me to watch it while he takes a leak," Kate said.

"Who's George?" Castle queried.

"Manny's wife is having baby, so his cousin George is filling in."

Castle dropped his spork. "Kate, something is wrong here. Manny doesn't have a wife. He's married but his husband's name is Brian." Castle put a hand over his stomach. "You think there's poison in the food? Maybe we should get this to CSU and get ourselves to a hospital. Castle loaded the containers back on the tray and started to walk away from the table as Kate followed.

They were both thrown to quaking ground as the nearby truck exploded. In a second explosion, the gas tank caught fire. Hot shards of metal rained down and heat radiated toward them. Castle tried to shake off the shock. "Kate!" he called, looking frantically back toward the blasts. Kate was lying on the ground. He could see a piece of the truck sticking up from her back. "Kate!"

Kate slowly pushed herself up. The piece of metal fell away, leaving only black marks where the fibers of her blouse had been scorched. "I'm okay, Rick. How are you?"

"Other than my heart beating out of my chest and being covered in cheese sauce and cocoa, fine. Oh God, Kate, when I saw that piece of metal on your back, I though it speared your lung or your heart or something. Are you burned?"

Kate unbuttoned her shirt to reveal the light armor vest underneath. "No. I'm glad I indulged you, Castle. This thing might have saved my life."

Castle drew a shaky breath. "Obviously poison wasn't what we needed to worry about. Kate, if we hadn't been walking away…."

"Yeah, I know, Castle. But you were right about getting CSU involved. We need them to go over every inch of what's left of that truck. And we need to get the traffic cam footage to trace its route. And we need to hunt down Manny, if he's still alive. And I'll need to work with an artist to put together a sketch of George we can put out in an APB."

Castle brushed a strand of sooty hair out of Kate's face. "Yes, we will do all that, but maybe we can clean up and put on some fresh clothes, too."

Kate brushed off a piece of debris that was stuck to Castle's shoulder. "Yeah, Babe, we can do that."

* * *

Alexis ran toward her father as he and Kate came through the door of the loft. "Dad! I was so worried! The explosion was just on the news!"

"What did they say?" Kate queried.

"Just that a food truck blew up near the Twelfth Precinct," Alexis replied, "and that a couple of people were caught in the explosion, but the story was developing."

Kate blew out a breath. "Good, Bracken will have no idea yet that we survived."

"We're fine, Pumpkin," Castle added. "Where's your gram?"

"She had an audition. She's still at the theater," Alexis related. "She probably doesn't know anything happened."

"Just as well," Castle said. He looked at Kate. "Shower or soak in the tub?"

"Shower, a quick one," Kate decided. "We need to do everything we can before more news gets out there. Hopefully the press will cooperate with keeping a lid on it for a while."

* * *

Bracken grasped a glass of fifty-year-old scotch and extended another one to Joey Logan. "Good job. I take it that the tragic victims of the explosion were the late Detective Kate Beckett and her salacious chronicler Richard Castle."

"They were the only ones near the truck, Sir. Mallory took care of the owner of the truck. Got him right after he was at an ATM. Took his wallet, his phone, and his wedding ring. When they ID the body, it will look like another unfortunate New York mugging."

"Yes, sad thing, crime in the streets," Bracken responded. "I'll have to integrate that, the next time I give a speech. Where are we on Pulgatti?"

"There is a problem with that," Joey admitted. "Beckett arranged for him to be put in segregated population and the guy we have left at the prison isn't high enough up the chain to get him back into general, like we did with McCallister.

The amber liquid in Bracken's glass sloshed as he slammed his palm against his desk. "Damn! But I imagine that with Beckett and Castle out of the picture, no one is going to be talking to Pulgatti anyway. No one except Beckett's bitch of a mother ever cared about that asshole. Alright. Tell Simmons I want to see him. I want to ramp up the funding flowing into the super PAC. I may be making some moves sooner than I thought."

"President Bracken?" Joey inquired.

Bracken took a sip of his drink and grinned. "Never too soon to start planning for the future."

"Yes, Sir," Joey acknowledged. "I'll take care of it right now."

A/N If you are a Con Man fan, watch the marathon on SyFy channel tonight, then post about it on social media. This is important to try to induce SyFy to order a third season. If you don't know what Con Man is, check out the listings of my stories. Eight of them are Con Man, and one is a Spectrum, which is related. The Con man stories are short and should give you a laugh. Wray is played by Alan Tudyk and Jack Moore is Nathan, which is the reason I'm mentioning Con Man.


	10. Chapter 10

Emergence

Chapter 10

"Kate, from your expression, something happened while I was throwing water on my face," Castle said as he returned to Kate's desk from the Men's Room at the precinct.

"Yeah, I just heard from the lieutenant at the Fifty-fourth. They just identified the victim in a mugging case they're working on. It was Manny Solis."

"Our Manny from the truck?"

Kate nodded. "Someone killed him to get him out of the way, so we could be taken out."

Castle scrubbed his hands over his still damp cheeks. "This gets worse by the minute. Any more on the identity of our murderous macaroni merchant?"

"Not yet. My sketch is out there, and CSU is still working on the wreckage of the truck. He was wearing food service gloves, so there are no prints on the tray or the food containers we had, except for ours. Maybe we'll get lucky, and he didn't wear them when he was setting the bomb. That's...," Kate's cell phone whooshed with the sound of a bubbling flask. "That's CSU now." Kate thumbed the speaker icon.

"Detective Beckett, this is Max Goldblum, from the lab. We just ID'd a print from the debris of the food truck. His face matches your sketch. His name is Joseph Skyler Logan. That's Skyler with a "k." If there was a detonator, it was destroyed in the blast, but we found explosive residue. It was an ammonium nitrate fuel oil mixture. The components would be easy to get anywhere, but the fuel had a colorant, which may help us track it down. I'll let you know as soon as we have anything else."

"Great Max, thanks," Beckett replied before ending the call.

Castle was already starting a search for Joseph Skyler Logan. "Oh Kate, you're going to love this. There's actually an article on this guy on Bracken's website, as an example of Bracken's humanitarian efforts. 'Joey Logan was a kid from the roughest neighborhood in Washington Heights,'" Castle read out loud.

"That's Vulcan Simmons' territory and where my mother was killed," Kate interjected.

"Right," Castle agreed, "but there's more. 'Joey Logan was on his way to serving a stint in Juvenile Hall, but he caught the eye of then District Attorney, William Bracken, who saw something promising in the boy. Bracken became a mentor, making sure Joey stayed in school, then when Joey was ready, he became part of Bracken's team, first as a gofer, then gradually working himself up the ladder. Now he's proudly serving as Bracken's executive assistant.'"

Kate wrapped her arms around Castle's neck, with her first unfettered smile in days. "I would love to see Bracken's proud executive assistant explain what he was doing serving macaroni and cheese in a dead man's exploding food truck."

* * *

"You didn't even read me my rights. I want to call my lawyer," Joey Logan protested, as L.T. and officer Harrison led him into interrogation, in handcuffs. His eyes bulged at the sight of Kate Beckett and Richard Castle, already seated at the metal table.

"Surprised, 'George?'" Castle inquired.

"I want a lawyer," Logan repeated.

"Well you see, Joey," Kate explained, "you set off a bomb in a truck right next to a police precinct. That can be classed as an act of domestic terrorism. Terrorists have done a lot less. Under the Patriot Act, you don't get a lawyer; you don't get anything."

"Not that it would help you if you did," Castle added. You have a well-respected, famous in fact, homicide detective as a witness that you were in that truck, and conveniently had to go potty before it blew. There's also forensic evidence linking you to the crime. You're as cooked as your macaroni and cheese cups, which were overdone, by the way."

"Unless, of course, you have something to help us put the D.A. and maybe Homeland Security in a mood to deal," Kate put in.

"Homeland Security folks are actually pretty good friends of ours, these days," Castle inserted.

Joey looked from Castle to Kate. He really did need a men's room, now. "What do you want?"

"Not what, who," Kate informed him. "We want Manny Solis' killer, but who we really want is your boss."

* * *

William Bracken relished his time at the podium which had been set up on the steps of the courthouse. He loved looking down at the sea of eager and sometimes adoring faces. He loved watching the press hanging on his every word. He even liked the wind ruffling his hair just enough to give the impression that he was just a common man, one who understood the problems of his constituents and was eager to come to their aid. The one thing he didn't like, was the absence of Joey Logan. But he could ream his assistant out for his absence, later. He scrolled through the speech on the iPad in front of him. "You all know how passionate I am about the environment, clean air, clean water, but there is another part of the environment that I would like to zero in on today. We are all grief stricken over the explosion that took two lives at the Twelfth Precinct. I would add to that another life, senselessly taken in the streets of this city, for the few dollars obtained from an ATM. A safe environment means being able to live, work, and play, without fear. I will be sponsoring a new anti-crime initiative, to address not only the safety of every citizen of this country today but the citizens, our children will be tomorrow. And today I am announcing the formation of an exploratory committee for a run for the presidency of these United States. I hope that you will all support me in building a better country for all of us."

Kate strode up the steps, followed by Ryan and Esposito. "We could start by having a country where killers like you are behind bars, Senator Bracken."

Bracken stared at her. " Kate Beckett! You can't be here. You're dead!"

"Interesting that you should think so, Senator, considering that the names of the victims of the truck explosion were never released. You can consider me a ghost, the ghost of all of your sins." Kate pulled out her handcuffs, "Senator William H. Bracken, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit the murders of John Raglan, Gary McCallister, Manfred Solis, and my mother, Johanna Beckett."

Bracken stood in shock while Kate slapped cuffs on him. Ryan and Esposito led Bracken to a waiting car. All the reporters followed, leaving Kate to walk unobserved into the arms of Castle, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. "You did it," Rick said. "You got him. Your mother can rest in peace."

"We got him, and it's not just about my mother, Castle," Kate said, staring up into Rick's eyes, "Logan didn't just flip on Bracken, he flipped on Mallory, so Brian Solis can have some closure. And the DEA is closing in on Vulcan Simmons' drug operation as we speak. The force is using Logan's information to hunt down Lockwood too. Bracken will get his wish for a safer city, even if he didn't mean it."

"So, what do you want to do now, Kate?" Castle asked. "Ryan and Esposito will be handling the booking. I have a bottle of Dom Perignon waiting at the loft. We could go open it."

Kate's fingertips lightly brushed his cheek. "I want to go to the loft, but I don't need any champagne."


	11. Chapter 11

Emergence

Chapter 11

"Is Alexis going to be home?" Kate asked as she and Castle stepped into the elevator to reach the loft.

"If I recall her schedule, she has a fencing lesson and then practice for the academic decathlon. She won't be home until at least seven. And Mother had a callback. If she thinks she did well, she'll be out with her friends, or at least one friend, raising a glass to her acting prowess. If she thinks she blew it, she'll be drowning her sorrows. Either way, we should have the place to ourselves for at least a couple of hours."

"That sounds perfect," Kate said.

She reached for Castle before they were even through the door, which he hastily kicked shut, as she began to climb his body. As she wrapped her endless legs around his waist, Castle managed to get both of them to the bedroom, where they fell heavily on the bed. Kate shed her top in one motion and began to pull at Castle's shirt, plunging her hands inside but frustrated by the t-shirt beneath. Castle helped her remove it, and rolled her underneath him. Their lips joined with collision force, tongues questing and probing. Kate ground wildly against him, reaching for the buckle of his belt, then for the buttons and zipper it guarded. "Why do they make men's clothes so hard to get off?" she panted.

Castle pulled at his stubborn garment. "I think my tailor is a sadist. Tomorrow I'll see about finding another one." He tugged hard at Kate's slacks. "And you might try a less restrictive cut for your attractive but frustrating trousers."

Kate drew in another shallow breath, as they reversed places. "I'll make a note of it." Their bodies slammed together again with no air or thought left for banter.

* * *

Castle luxuriated in the feeling of Kate lying boneless on top of him as he stroked soft strands of her hair, now damp with sweat. "That was different. Kate, you have always been incredible, more than I could ever imagine or wish for. But I've never known you to be so - free."

Kate snuggled into his bare chest. "I haven't felt that way, Rick. Not since my mother died. It's like there was this invisible wall between me and the rest of the world, even you. You poked a few holes in it, but now it's just gone. I can breathe again."

"That makes one of us," Castle confessed. "I think I'm still a little oxygen deprived. I may have to stock up on Wheaties, just to keep up with you, but it will certainly be an effort of pure ecstasy."

"Hungry, Castle?" Kate asked. "I'm starving."

Castle groaned. "I'm not sure my legs can make it to the kitchen."

Kate kissed the warm skin beneath her lips. "That's okay Babe, you've done more than your share in there. I'll cook."

Castle felt suddenly bereft as Kate drew herself up and out of bed, pulled on her clothes and sprinted out the bedroom door. After drifting between sleep and consciousness for a while, he slowly roused himself and followed her to the kitchen, to find her stirring a pot of thick, herb speckled red liquid. He pressed his lips lightly to the notch where her shoulder met her neck. "What are you making?"

Kate briefly nestled back against him before returning to her culinary pursuit. "It's my nona's special meat sauce. You had all the ingredients."

"I've always prided myself on a well-stocked refrigerator and pantry," Castle remarked. "I see you have the pasta pot out, but no water boiling. From that, I assume that the sauce will take a while. Anything I can do to help feed my ravenous lover in the mean time? Food wise?"

"You can tell me where you hid the M&M's. I couldn't find them," Kate confided.

"Ah, the skills of the mistress of detection simultaneously compromised by hunger and satiety." Castle reached up to the top shelf, uncovered a soup crock and pulled a bag from inside. "What color do you want?"

Kate ran the tip of her tongue around her lips. "Red, Castle. Definitely red."

* * *

Kate and Rick slowly exited the elevator at the Twelfth Precinct the next morning. "I don't know how I'm going to make it through the day," Castle confessed. "I just want to take you back to bed in the loft."

"I know what you mean, Babe," Kate agreed. "But Lockwood is still out there. So are the rest of Bracken's men, except for Mallory, and if he knows where they are, so far he's not talking."

"He's probably afraid of what Lockwood would do to him," Castle speculated.

"He should be afraid of what I'll do to him, Kate responded.

"So how do we track them down?" Castle asked.

"We have access to Bracken's financials now," Kate responded. "Lockwood and Mallory had to be freelancers, and he had to be paying them somehow. And checking the color tag, the lab did zero in on an area where the fuel in the truck bomb was purchased. It's industrial. That could be Lockwood's style. When you beat Lockwood's face in, he was using an industrial building as a hideout. We can see if that information intersects with Bracken's payments and/or the area where the fuel was purchased."

"In other words, do the straight up 'slog through the reams of figures,' kind of police work," Castle realized.

Kate ran her hand down his arm. "I know it's your least favorite kind, Castle, but you're also really good at it. You read at least twice as fast as any of us, and you remember what you read. So, if I had to pick the perfect partner for this, it would be you."

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Castle teased. "Fine, bring on the sore fingers and tired eyes. I'm your guy."

Kate bumped her hip against his. "After yesterday, I certainly hope so."

Castle stared at her for a moment, trying to understand the total meaning behind her words. "We'll talk more about that later."

* * *

Lockwood looked around his new hideout in the Bronx. It wasn't easily defensible. With both pedestrian entrances and drive in doors, it offered far too much access, but he'd done the best he could with the old factory building. Every entrance but one, was booby trapped. The remaining one was a triple locked steel door. Power was supplied by a diesel generator with battery back-up in vital areas so that he couldn't be brought to heel by the flick of a switch at Con Edison, or the cutting of a wire. The building ownership itself was hidden inside several nesting shell corporations, having been used as an operations hub for Vulcan Simmons, until in recent years, before his capture by the DEA, the overbearing drug lord had gone more upscale. No one had occupied the place in a long time - except roaches, rats, and spiders - and there were way too many of those. Still, there had been little sign of police activity in the area. That was the way he liked it, until things cooled down enough for him to make his way out of the city and out of the country. He had an eye toward Samoa. Not only was the scenery, both the beaches and the female population, lovely, but there was no extradition. From there he could also easily access money he'd secreted away. He was sure that the few of Bracken's employees who'd managed to go to ground with him believed that he'd engineer their escape too. When the time came, they'd escape alright - to hell. But until then, they were useful. They could easily keep up a twenty-four-hour watch. Anyone who came snooping around would never snoop anywhere else again.


	12. Chapter 12

Emergence

Chapter 12

After a long day of laborious digging through financial transactions, Castle's attention was nevertheless caught when Kate's breasts pressed hard against her blouse as she yawned and stretched. "Maybe we should knock off for the day," he suggested, "if you're as tired as I am."

"Maybe you're right, Castle," Kate conceded. "Fresh eyes could help."

Castle rose slowly from his chair, stretching his own tight muscles. "I'm going to call Alexis and see if she's fed herself and Mother. If not, want to stop at The Golden Sun and pick up dinner? I have a craving for spare ribs."

"I wouldn't mind gnawing on something right now," Kate agreed.

"Better a spare rib than your lower lip," Castle offered. "You've really been beating it up, today."

Kate put a fingertip to the abused area. "Maybe later, you can render some first aid."

Castle wiggled his eyebrows. "I do know mouth to mouth. We'll just have to see just how much resuscitation you need."

* * *

Castle's chopsticks stopped half way up as he was delivering a cashew to his mouth. "What's wrong, Dad?" Alexis asked.

"I was thinking about Vulcan Simmons." Castle explained.

"Richard, Darling, that awful drug dealer?" Martha reproved. "you're going to ruin a perfectly good meal, well almost perfectly good, the snow peas are a little limp."

"I'll tell the chef to watch out for that the next time, Mother," Castle assured her. "But actually, I was wondering what happened to Simmons' operation. I know the DEA closed in, but the thing was huge. It was feeding money to Bracken. There must have been assets, properties. The DEA would seize the ones they knew about, but I doubt that they've had time to uncover all of them yet, or would even make it a priority as long as the drugs are off the street. Depending on how entrenched Lockwood was with Bracken's operation, he might know. And it's likely that Joey Logan would. He knew Simmons' operation from the inside, and he handled all kinds of details for Bracken. Kate, we should talk to him and see if we can match up what he says with what we already know. He's still trying to earn as many points as he can, to shave time off his prison sentence."

"Castle, you may have something there," Kate allowed. "We can go to the prison first thing tomorrow."

* * *

Joey Logan pressed his fingers to his temple. "Yeah, Vulcan Simmons has property, lots of it. Over the years he pushed out other dealers and took whatever they had in their territories. He ended up with a lot of legitimate, or at least semi-legitimate investments."

Kate spread out a map in front of Joey with an area outlined in red. "How about here?" she pointed.

"Yeah, there was building in that area, but he hadn't used it for a while," Joey said. "I don't remember the exact address." He tapped his finger nail on the paper. "But it was near this corner. It would have been under St. Anton Corporation. That was a private joke for him. St. Anton is a ski resort known for white powder."

"That's helpful, Joey, thank you," Kate said.

"So, you'll put in a good word for me?" Joey queried hopefully.

"Sure," Kate promised.

"Sick bastard," Castle muttered as he and Kate walked back to her unit.

"Joey Logan?" Kate asked. "He was pretty cooperative."

Castle shook his head. "Vulcan Simmons, naming an operation after white powder? It's like ruining people's lives was some big joke to him, like when you interrogated him. He even thought it was funny when you slammed him into that mirror. Great upper body strength, by the way."

"Yeah well, there are a lot of sickos who make their money off other people's misery, Castle. At least that one's off the street." Kate slid behind the wheel. "Let's see what we can do about Lockwood."

* * *

Kate studied the video display in the ESU trailer. There were five human heat sources inside the building she and Castle had identified from Joey Logan's information. "Detective, we have this under control," Captain Petersen insisted. "We'd do better if you would just step out of the way and let us do our jobs."

"Captain Petersen, don't underestimate Hal Lockwood," Kate warned. "The man has already killed two former police officers that we know of, and we suspect there were more. He also didn't hesitate to kill his own girlfriend, when he thought she could give him away. He will be prepared and probably heavily armed."

"Detective, my people and I can handle it," Petersen assured her.

Petersen's squad of armored men surrounded the building. They penetrated the front door and were blown back by an explosion. Shots sounded from inside the building, barely heard above the confusion. "Pull back! Pull back!" Petersen yelled. "Get the medics in here."

Kate watched the building in horror as Castle pointed to small door, in shadow at the rear of the building. "Look, someone is trying to get away!"

"Rear of the building!" Kate yelled and took off at a dead run, while members of the ESU squad scrambled to follow. Castle went with them, checking the Velcro closures of his vest as he ran. Sprinting like an Olympian, Kate was the first to reach the fleeing figure. She and Lockwood stared at each other over their pointed weapons.

"Why don't you pull the trigger, Sweetheart?" Lockwood taunted. "You know you want to do it so bad you can taste it."

The squad caught up, pointing rifles at Lockwood, surrounding him.

"You're right, Lockwood," Kate admitted. "I would love to be the one to wipe a piece of shit like you off the planet, but that would be too fast. You don't get an easy ending like you gave Raglan and McCallister, or even that poor woman who bought your pills for you so you could shoot straight. You are going to suffer through questioning every single day until you are totally empty, drained of everything you know about Bracken, about anyone else he had under his thumb, about every day you've ever lived, and every thought you've ever had. And after that, I hope you live a long time knowing you will never see the outside of concrete walls and barbed wire again."

* * *

"Kate," Castle worried when they finally departed Lockwood's hideout. "He could have shot you, just like the four men ESU found inside the building. You should have let ESU go ahead of you."

"I couldn't Castle. Lockwood got away from me before. I couldn't let it happen again. I meant what I told him. This time we are going to know everything. If there are any tentacles Bracken still has out there, we are going to cut them off. And then Lockwood can live out the rest of his life in a cell, if we have to check out every guard, every visitor, and everyone in the prison, to make sure he stays there."

"That's a pretty tall order Kate," Castle noted, "and way beyond the job of a homicide cop."

"Castle, maybe it's time I thought about being more than a homicide cop. Maybe the worst kind of dirt isn't on the streets. Someone like Bracken who masquerades as a white knight while letting others do his dirty work is more dangerous than Lockwood. It's people like him that most need to be exposed and put away."

"Kate, where are you going with this?" Castle questioned.

"I don't know, Castle," Kate admitted. "But I'm going to figure it out."


	13. Chapter 13

Emergence

Chapter 13

Castle wrapped his arms around Kate as she tossed next to him in the light of early morning. "You came to bed late, and you didn't get much sleep while you were here."

"I didn't mean to keep you awake, Castle," she apologized.

"Kate, I'm not worried about that. Cat naps are my jam. You know that. I'm just wondering what's disturbing your slumber."

Sighing, Kate sat up cross legged, with the sheet and comforter still covering her legs. "Lockwood hasn't given me anything except the names of cops who are long gone. It's like he gets some perverse pleasure out of teasing me."

"He probably does, Kate," Castle agreed. "The man is a total sociopath. You shouldn't let him get to you. And it's not like he has much to lose by staying mum. Homicide, special circumstances, with the charges against him, he'll be spending the rest of his life in jail no matter what he says - or doesn't say. Maybe it's time to move on."

"Yeah, Castle, that's what I'm thinking. But I'm not sure to what. Now that I've gotten as much justice as I can for my mother, catching one murderer at a time doesn't seem like enough anymore. I want to get to the roots of the bigger blights on this city and tear them out of the muck. I just don't know how to get there from where I am now. Even If I worked myself up the ranks, I'd be stuck doing budgets and paperwork most of the time, like Montgomery. That's not the kind of cop I want to be."

"You're not talking about a transfer to Internal Affairs, are you?" Castle asked.

Kate palmed her head. "God, no! I hear the Captain who's there now, Gates, is doing her best to keep the department in line, but mostly she's just enforcing regs. No one loves her for it, especially the cops who get caught accessing porn on their computers. I don't give a damn how they get their fun, as long as they do their jobs. And that division has had enough corruption of its own. Remember Stan Holliwell who framed Espo's old partner Ike Thornton? He got away with being dirty for a hell of a long time in IA. And anyway, I want to go bigger, to find sharks like Bracken was when he was D.A. before they can get into bigger ponds and do even more damage. That will keep what happened to my mother from happening to anyone else, more effectively than nailing some wife who kills her cheating husband."

"Sounds like you need to go to the top, Kate. You could bring a proposal to Bob Weldon. He likes you."

"He only likes me because he thinks I can beat you at poker, which we both know isn't true. When it came to our showdown, you won all my gummy bears."

"If it's any consolation, they were sticky and disgusting by the time we finished playing. But you know, poker wouldn't be a bad way to go. I can set up a game with Bob, maybe the police commissioner, Judge Markway, a few other movers and shakers. After a couple of drinks and my award-winning guacamole, you outline your ideas. That group might be able to come up with something workable. There's an election coming. A campaign to crack down on crime is always a good vote getter. They'll be interested for that reason alone. It would be better than losing sleep, Kate, except perhaps in the pursuit of more pleasurable activities."

Kate leaned her elbows on her knees. "Alright, Castle. Set up the game. I'll give it a try."

* * *

"It's interesting that you should bring up an anti-corruption commission, Kate," Bob Weldon remarked as he raked in a large pot, which Kate was pretty sure Castle had allowed the gleeful mayor to win. "I was discussing one with members of the City Council a couple of days ago, in response to the Bracken scandal and all the dust it's kicked up. It would be terrific to have a cop on it, especially one as high-profile as you. We'd not only have more support from the public; we might even manage to get some decent funding. But there would be a lot of time involved. You might have to give up some of your duties at the Twelfth, maybe all of them, if the commission really gets going big time. Are you prepared to do that?"

Kate's stomach jumped into her throat as the reality of the change her life could undergo, penetrated. She swallowed and drew a breath. "I am."

Weldon clapped his hands together. "Excellent! I will get with my people and get the ball rolling." He turned to Castle. "Rick, have you got any more of that single malt?"

Castle grinned. "You bet!"

* * *

Worse than the leap it took at the poker game, Kate's stomach was doing flip flops at the convening of the organizational meeting of the Anti-Corruption Commission. She wished she had Castle with her, but it was members only, and even with his experience solving real life murders, as a mystery novelist, he didn't qualify. She'd been tempted to leave her phone on so he could listen, but he had a meeting at Black Pawn that morning anyway, so she would have to tell him what happened, later. After keeping her thoughts bottled up for so long, it was hard for her to believe just how much she wanted to do that. She just hoped there would be something worthwhile to tell.

Councilman Long called the meeting to order. "I suppose the first order of business should be introductions. For any who don't know me, I am Councilman Michael Long. From my right, we have Larry Riddick from the D.A.'s office, Barry Schultz, Forensic Accounting, Marshall Lannister from the RICO Task Force, Donald Dearing, from the Advocate's office, and last but certainly not least, Detective Kate Beckett from the N.Y.P.D. Welcome, all. Now that the Bracken affair has been so ably settled by Detective Beckett and her team, I would like to throw open a discussion of what other matters this commission should be addressing."

"Excuse me, Councilman Long," Kate interjected. "While I am grateful for the compliment, the Bracken matter is far from settled. Bracken had many connections in the city. We are far from having discovered all of them. They are a rot that could begin to spread again at any time. I would propose that this commission set as a goal, uncovering them and calling for public prosecutions wherever we can. Furthermore, I would suggest that sale of the assets I've uncovered, and whatever others Mr. Schultz's people can discover from the drug operation to which Bracken was allied, be sold to fund the investigation."

Long nodded. "A worthy goal, Detective. And pursuing it without the expenditure of taxpayer money will be especially attractive to the voters. Anyone else?"

Donald Dearing cleared his throat. "Citizens of this city report abuses to our office. Many of those involve corruption on lower levels, such as the city inspectors. I realize that investigations of these reports are not nearly as glamorous as what Detective Beckett is proposing, but it is corruption nonetheless, and there is not much our office can do about it except draft legislation, which is largely useless since the practices are already illegal. When restaurants and buildings are involved, if people die of food poisoning or collapsing buildings, they are just as dead as if someone shoots them. Where prosecutions are concerned - no offense Riddick - these offenses are very low on the D.A.'s list of priorities. Perhaps this commission could do something to raise their status."

"Point taken, Don." Long agreed.

While Kate agreed in principle with Dearing, she realized that it was going to be a very long meeting, and really hoped that Rick would be in the mood to give her a back rub that night.


	14. Chapter 14

Emergence

Chapter 14

"With the new Anti-Corruption Commission in New York, Bracken is continuing to generate problems, even though he's out of the picture," Ben Moss complained to his son.

"I know," Bill Moss agreed. "And we've lost almost our entire PAC income stream to from the city."

"That's not a problem," Ben decided. "most of that was going to support Bracken, and we have other fish to fry. We have to devote relatively low levels of resources to local elections around the country, but it will give us enough control, that the opposition will turn around and not know what happened to them. I'm more concerned about someone blowing the whistle on our connections to Bracken's former enterprises. It came close enough with that helicopter from our fleet. We really had to scramble to create enough doubt that it might have been stolen. We can't afford exposures like that again."

"That Detective Beckett was behind a lot of that, and she's a prime mover on that commission." Bill pointed out. "Bracken had been trying to take her out. We could still do it."

"No," Ben insisted. "That would just raise more suspicions. That commission is the baby of Mayor Weldon. He's banking on its success for his next campaign. I've been told that he's exploring a gubernatorial run. We discredit him, the commission loses its backing and collapses. End of problem."

"How are you planning on doing that?" Bill queried.

"I'll have to work out the details," Ben replied, "but it will have to be something that will dominate the news, which means there is going to have to be sex involved."

"Uh huh," Bill agreed, "For the best scandals, there always is."

* * *

Forcing his eyes open, Bob Weldon slowly scanned the unfamiliar room. He was sure he was in a hotel. From the unremarkable art on the walls, to the power outlet and USB connection in the base of the desk lamp, it was classic. He just had no idea how he got there. He'd had a few adventures like that before, running around with Rick Castle in the wilder days before the writer had become firmly tethered to Kate Beckett, but it had been years now. His watch, his wallet, and his phone were on the bedside table. He checked his wallet. The money and credit cards were still there. At least he hadn't been rolled. The other side of the bed was empty, and he didn't recall a woman. He wasn't really interested in anyone except Rebekkah since they'd become engaged. That made it even more of a puzzle as to how he'd ended up in a hotel room. He checked the time. It was eleven A.M. He'd already missed three meetings, and one of them was with a man who could be a significant donor to his run for the governor's mansion. That was not good, not good at all. He was naked, but he could see his clothes had been piled on a chair. He'd grab a quick shower and try to salvage the rest of the day as best he could. Unsteadily he made his way into the bathroom. He emptied his overfull bladder in the toilet, then pulled back the standard white hotel shower curtain. A girl was lying in the shower, and she wasn't moving. He felt for a pulse. There was none, and the body was too cold to be alive. He considered what to do. He couldn't cover up the fact that he'd been there. No doubt his fingerprints and DNA were all over the place, and there was a very good chance that he had been seen and recognized by hotel staff. There was one person he trusted to investigate what happened and give him a fair shake. He called Kate Beckett.

* * *

"Bob, you don't remember anything about how you got to that hotel," Castle probed, as they sat in the lounge at the precinct.

"Not a thing, Rick," Weldon insisted. "The last thing I remember was getting a cup of coffee from a food truck on my way to the subway. I was going uptown to go shopping for a gift for Rebekkah's birthday, so I wasn't taking an official car. I must have been drugged or something. I still feel kind of hazy."

"Lanie Parish is running a screen on your blood now," Castle said. "But I know from research for my stories that not everything would show up. You were at that hotel overnight. If someone used GHB on you, that's what's called 'liquid ecstasy,' it would have been cleared from your bloodstream in eight hours. I don't suppose you remember what you did with your coffee cup?"

Weldon shook his head. "Nothing, after I started drinking the coffee. But if I did toss it, it would have been in one of the litter baskets between the truck and the subway, or maybe in the subway, if I ever got there."

"We'll need the location and description of that truck," Kate said from the doorway. "We'll check any video in the area and run a canvass to see if anyone saw anything."

"Have you identified that poor girl in the shower?" Weldon asked.

"She was a prostitute," Kate related. "She had a rap sheet. Her name was Gertrud Yoder. Caspar, the bartender at the hotel, said that she was a regular, but pretty subtle about her work. Money never changed hands in the bar. She tended to go for the lonely fish out of water longing for home, types. She'd talk them up, let them buy her a drink or two, and then they'd leave the bar. He assumed the men took her to their rooms. The hotel confirmed that rooms were never rented in her name - until last night. You were in her room."

"Did anyone see me go there with her?" Weldon asked.

"Not that we've found so far," Kate replied. "And somehow the hotel security video from last night is missing, so there is no record of how you got there. We have our people checking on how that could have happened."

"Bob, it sounds like whoever set you up, went to a lot of trouble to do it," Castle said.

"Except," Kate put in, "at this moment, we have no evidence at all that you were set up. So far, all we have is a dead girl and your claim that you don't remember what happened. And Mayor Weldon, we've heard claims like that before from guys who are serving life."

"But Kate," Castle objected, "we've just started the investigation, right? Something is bound to turn up that will reveal what really happened."

"Castle," Kate assured him, "we will definitely keep looking for what really happened."

* * *

Castle poured out glasses of wine for himself and Kate, and they settled against the cushions of the couch in the loft. "Kate, you don't really think Bob Weldon killed Gertrud Yoder, do you?" Castle asked.

Kate put a hand on his knee. "Babe, it doesn't matter what I think. I have to go wherever the evidence leads. I can't show any preferential treatment for Bob, especially now that I'm on the Anti-Corruption Commission. This investigation has to be straight by the book, and if and when it clears him, no one will be happier than I will. And you know that I'll explore every lead."

Castle closed his eyes, shaking his head. "Explore every lead, that's what you say when you have nothing."

"Rick," Kate promised, "we will figure this out."


	15. Chapter 15

Emergence

Chapter 15

Castle came out of the bathroom, still wrapped in a towel, to find Kate sitting on the bed, holding her cell phone. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Gertrud Yoder died of a heroin overdose, but she wasn't a user. She only had one needle mark and none of the regular signs of addiction. She also showed no signs of having sex," Kate added.

"Well that's good, right?" Castle pressed. "If Bob was in the room with a prostitute who didn't have sex, he must have been set up. We just have to find whoever gave Gertrude the heroin."

"Castle, that's just it. A syringe with traces of heroin in it was found in the trash of the hotel. It has Bob Weldon's fingerprints on it. Espo is floating a theory that maybe Weldon couldn't get it up and shot Gertrud up in anger."

"That's ridiculous," Castle snorted. "Where would Bob Weldon get heroin? And don't prostitutes carry blue pills for emergencies these days? Probably those single use packets they show the sexy girl on the bed hawking in the commercials. Not that I'd know it for a fact," he added hurriedly, "but that's what I've heard."

"Castle I agree, it smells. But so far there's no other suspect. And Lanie didn't find any drugs in Bob Weldon's system. I know that doesn't prove anything, but if you put it all together, it's more than enough to charge him with murder and bind him over for trial. I thought if you went with me when I bring him in, it might be easier on him. At least he'd have a friend for support."

"Yeah, of course, I'll support him Kate, but I'll do more than that," Castle vowed. "I'm going to prove he didn't kill Gertrud."

* * *

Castle carefully traced the route Bob Weldon had sworn that he'd taken to the subway. There was no coffee truck, but there was a hot dog vendor, just setting up shop. Castle bought the first hot dog he cooked and looked regretfully around. "I was hoping for a coffee. Isn't there usually a truck along here somewhere?"

The vendor shook his head. "Nah. I've got Coke or Mountain Dew if you need a caffeine blast. The only time I ever saw a coffee truck was a couple of days ago, and it wasn't here long. It caught a few customers then moved on. Weird, huh? Usually, when a truck has customers, it stays, especially since one of the customers was Mayor Weldon. I was hoping he'd grab a dog, so I could get a selfie with him, you know? The wife's a real political junkie. Glad I didn't, now he's in trouble."

"He may not be if you can testify that he was here," Castle said. "Didn't the police question you?"

"Uh, uh. But if they came by yesterday, I might not have been here. I took my mother to a doctor's appointment and didn't get going until late. You know how they keep you in the waiting room forever."

"I do," Castle commiserated. "Look, my girlfriend is a cop. If she wants to talk to you, can she find you here?"

"Eleven to seven every day," The vendor assured him. "I'm Monty, Monty Richmond."

Castle stuck out his hand. "Richard Castle."

"Oh yeah, the writer, right? My mother loves your books. She was reading one off her Kindle while she was waiting for the doctor."

"Nice to know I could come in handy," Castle said. "A Detective Kate Beckett should be in touch."

"That's your girlfriend?" Monty inquired, giving a double thumbs up. "I saw her picture in the paper. She's hot!"

"Yeah," Castle agreed. "I just hope she gets hot on this trail."

* * *

Trying to get enough writing in to keep Gina, in her function as his publisher, off his back, Castle worked on his laptop while he waited for word from Kate about checking out the information he'd gathered from Monty. His phone was refusing to ring. He checked it to make sure the battery hadn't died, and he hadn't missed a call. He jumped when the _Starsky and Hutch_ theme song erupted from the speaker. "Kate!"

"Castle, I talked to Monty, and he confirmed what you told me. There's no video in that area. That's probably why it was chosen, but the traffic cam did catch a coffee truck coming in that direction in the right time frame. We traced the plate, and we're looking for the owner of the truck. It's not enough to get Weldon off the hook, but it's a start. There's something else. Lanie got traces of DNA off Gertrud Yoder's body. It wasn't in the system, and it definitely didn't come from Bob Weldon. From the phenotype, it belonged to a tall, dark haired, white male."

"So, you can question the hotel staff and see if they saw anyone like that, can't you?" Castle asked.

"The boys are going to try, Castle, but the description fits a lot of men. This is New York. Gertrud could have rubbed up against someone in the subway. So far, with the evidence of the syringe, Weldon is still our best suspect."

"Then I'll just have to dig up something or someone else." Castle declared.

* * *

Castle had been doing his best to nurse his way through a couple of scotches at a table in the hotel bar. The liquor wasn't that good anyway. What he had at home was better. In any case, getting drunk was the last thing he wanted to do. Ryan and Espo hadn't turned anything up about the mysterious white male. Castle needed to be alert for anything he could pick up that might help Weldon, and time was running out. The mayor had already been arraigned. He was out on bail, trying to do his job, but the clamor for his resignation was getting more insistent by the hour. A woman slid into a chair opposite Castle. "You look lonely. I'm Lana. Buy a lady a drink?"

Castle studied her. She wore too much makeup, and her false lashes weighed down her eyelids, giving her a slightly sleepy look some men might have taken for sexy. Lines around her eyes and mouth that her makeup couldn't quite conceal betrayed a life not lived in the happiest of circumstances, but she was smiling. Castle signaled to a server, then turned back to Lana. "I'm Rick. What is the lady's pleasure?"

"Screwdriver," Lana purred. "I find it inspirational."

"Screwdriver," Castle repeated to the server.

"Lana, what exactly does the drink inspire?" Castle asked when the server had left the table.

"Whatever pleasures I might provide to a gentleman, Rick," Lana responded, licking her lips.

"You must be multi-talented," Castle suggested. "I desire many pleasures."

Castle and Lana were both quiet as the server returned with Lana's drink. Castle put a hundred-dollar bill on the tray. "We could use a little privacy."

The server nodded. "I understand, Sir."

Castle rubbed his knees up against Lana's under the table, as she sipped lightly at the orange liquid in her glass. "Lana, I have some unique needs."

"I'm sure I can find a way to fulfill them, Rick. Do you have a room here?"

"As a matter of a fact, Lana, I do," Castle replied "The presidential suite."

Lana raised an eyebrow. "Well, Rick, then let's go up there, and I'll make you feel like the leader of the free world."

Castle came around the table, pulled out her chair, and offered her his arm.

Lana's eyes hardened as soon as Castle closed the door of his suite behind them. "I take cash or major credit cards. And I make sure they're good. It's two hundred fifty for straight sex, same for a blow job. Five hundred if you have a fetish, like feet."

Castle pulled out his wallet. "Never cared much for the feet thing. How much for some information?"


	16. Chapter 16

Emergence

Chapter 16

Lana backed away. "What the hell! Are you a cop?"

"Calm down, Lana," Castle urged. "Does Vice rent the Presidential Suite? I'm not a cop. I don't care how many guys you make feel like the leader of the free world. I've just got a friend who's in trouble, and I'm trying to get him out of it. Did you know Gertrud Yoder?"

Lana eyed Castle appraisingly, noting the custom-made shirt. If he was a cop, they'd upped their budget - a lot. "Cost you a thousand bucks."

Castle pulled the money out of his wallet and held it up. "Tell me about Gertrud."

"Yeah, I knew her. She was weird, you know? Religious. You wouldn't expect that from a hooker, would you?"

Castle shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Legend has it that Jesus was kind of fond of fallen women. Maybe she thought she had a friend. So how was she religious?"

"Her parents came from one of those places in Pennsylvania where they have the carts with the horses, but they got kicked out for some reason. Gertrud didn't feel right in the city, especially hooking. She wanted to go back and repent or something, make things right. She was looking for some score that would get her out of the life." Lana shook her head. "I guess whatever she found really got her out of the life, permanently."

"When was the last time you saw her?" Castle questioned.

"A couple of nights before she was killed. She was doing her usual thing in the bar, looking for lonely out of towners, but the guy who approached her didn't fit the mold. I mean the clothes were right. He was wearing a suit that looked like it came off the rack from a men's store where the owner does all those commercials. But his haircut was definitely uptown, and the shoes were Italian."

Castle nodded. "Good eye."

"It keeps me out of jail," Lana noted.

"Good for you," Castle responded. "So, what did Mr. Italian shoes look like?"

"Tall, dark hair, shorter than yours. Pale, like someone who works in an office all day. And he had a nervous habit or something. When he and Gertrud were talking, he kept jingling the change in his pocket."

"I don't suppose you heard a name?" Castle asked.

"Sorry," Lana said. "But if I had, I doubt that it would have been his real one, anyway."

"Yeah," Castle agreed, handing her the bills he'd been holding. "You're most likely right."

* * *

Castle returned to the loft at almost the same time Kate did. "I've got something!" they exclaimed together.

"You first," Castle urged, nervous about how Kate would react to how he'd obtained his information.

"We found the owner of the coffee truck, Castle," Kate reported. "He'd been out of town, said he'd won a free junket to Vegas in a random drawing. But we checked, there was no drawing. Someone just wanted to get him out of town. The tickets were delivered by messenger, and we have no idea where they came from. Anyway, whoever served Bob Weldon the coffee had no business in that truck. But they must have known his schedule pretty well, to know where he was going and that he'd want coffee. I called Weldon, and he told me that a couple of his aides would have had that information. We're checking them out now."

"That's great! And I've got more on the mysterious tall, dark-haired man." Castle quickly recounted what he'd learned from Lana.

"Castle, you need to stop getting information from working girls," Kate warned. "One of these days you're going to be confronted by a very unfriendly pimp - or worse."

"As far as I can tell, Gertrud didn't have a pimp. Neither does Lana. But Kate, someone must know who the change jingler is," Castle insisted. "The bartender or one of the servers would have noticed something as annoying as that. Maybe there's tab with a room number or a credit card on it. Or the clerk who rented him the room should remember him. It would probably be someone on the shift that's working right now. Could you go back to the hotel with me, flash your badge and ferret out a suspect other than Bob?"

Kate ran her fingertips over his roughening cheek. "Sure, Babe, but you're going to owe me dinner."

"Whatever you desire," Castle promised.

* * *

"Yeah, I remember that guy," Caspar recalled. "Double malt, neat. And I did see him with Gertrud, Detective Beckett. No credit card, paid cash. But he was close enough to the till to be on video. The camera's there to make sure the employees aren't ripping off the hotel, and they make sure we know it. But he would have been in range."

Castle grinned. "And that was before the night when the hotel video was mysteriously wiped. Got 'im!"

* * *

Kate appreciatively crunched a hummus dipped carrot at a bar and grill two blocks from the hotel. "With any luck, Tech will have the video from the hotel bar scrubbed and run facial recognition sometime tomorrow morning, and we'll know who the jingler is."

"Makes him sound like a comic book villain, doesn't it," Castle noted. "How about Weldon's aides? How long do think it will be before you uncover who tipped off the purveyor of amnesia-inducing coffee?"

"I don't know, Castle. Weldon said he does background checks everyone who is hired to work in his office, so if there is something off about someone there, it's going to be pretty well buried. But we'll dig it out."

"Whoever it is could lead right down your alley to a nest of corruption," Castle pointed out. "Why else would someone want to discredit Bob Weldon, if not to get rid of the Anti-Corruption Commission? And someone had to have a pretty good organization going to pull this off. I'd think it was Bracken if he wasn't behind bars."

"Whoever it is, we'll find out," Kate promised. "You want the last piece of pita?"

Castle aimed the wedge of flatbread toward Kate's lips. "All yours."

* * *

"Are all the Facebook postings taken care of?" Ben Moss asked his son.

"Yes, the feed is going out calling for Weldon's head," Bill confirmed. "It will look like it's coming from a lot of disgruntled citizens groups. Our guys are working on the bots for Twitter, too."

Ben nodded in satisfaction. "an angry electronic mob. Much easier to manage than a real one. Tell Gleb, good work. What are we getting out of Weldon's office?"

"Weldon is determined not to give up. He's sure he's going to be cleared," Bill responded. "He is one stubborn bastard."

"It doesn't matter," Ben declared. "Dead hooker. His fingerprints on the syringe. It's a slam dunk. Damn! Will you stop that! I thought you quit years ago."

"Sorry," Bill apologized, pulling his hand out of his pocket. "This situation has been a little tense. Gertrud was a nice girl."

"Hookers are not nice girls!" Ben retorted. "They are hookers. Nice girls pour coffee and make copies. Gertrud was just another piece on the chess board - and a pawn at that. Sacrificing pawns is part of the game. I thought you knew that by now."

Bill resisted the urge to reach for his coins again. "I do Dad. I do."


	17. Chapter 17

Emergence

Chapter 17

"What have you got?" Castle called as he came out of the men's room to see Kate putting a picture up on the murder board. "Is that Mr. Tall, Dark, and Jingly?"

"Otherwise known as Bill Moss, son of Ben Moss," Kate announced.

Castle stared wide-eyed at the board. "It's all starting to come together, the helicopter Lockwood used, the PAC supporting Bracken, even Gertrud being shot up with heroin. That goes back to Simmons' operation. Kate, you've got the motherlode here. You're not only going to be able to clear Bob; you've got an entrée into finding what's left of the Moss connections in this city."

"Not so fast, Castle. Bob isn't cleared yet. All we know is that Bill Moss was seen with Gertrud, and not even on the night of the murder. The rest is supposition. Bob was still in Gertrud's room, and his prints are still on the syringe. A top-notch defense attorney might be able to create reasonable doubt if Bob's case goes to trial, but that could be months or years from now."

"You're right," Castle agreed. "And by then Bob's career and everything he's built, including your commission, would be gone. So, what now? Bring in Bill Moss?"

Kate shook her head. "Not yet. It would just tip him off. He has the resources to disappear. But we can put him under surveillance, get DNA, get fingerprints. We can have CSU go over the coffee truck. See if we can get a match. I can have CSU analyze the heroin, see if it matches what was recovered from Vulcan Simmons' operation. When we've got something solid, we bring Bill Moss in and hit him with it. You up for a stakeout?"

"Never more up in my life," Castle declared. He wiggled his eyebrows. "Well, almost never."

* * *

Castle folded his jacket and put it beneath the computer that straddled his thighs as he sat in the passenger seat of Beckett's unit. "I wish the trail was getting as hot as my laptop."

"I'm surprised you wanted to bring it, Castle," Kate said. "You've never had it with you on a stakeout before."

"Yeah, well Gina's breathing down my neck for this chapter, and there was no way I could stay away from this," Castle explained. "But outside of framing Bob for murder, Bill Moss must lead one of the most boring lives in the universe. He's been in that office all day. He didn't even go to lunch. Speaking of which, I think I could persuade Giovani's to deliver to your car. Basil and Fresh mushrooms?"

Kate pressed her fingers to her lips. "I think I'd rather have banana peppers. No, wait! He's coming out! Looks like he's heading for his car. That BMW is registered to him."

Castle blew air through pursed lips. "That car has quite an engine in it. I hope you can keep up."

Kate winked at him. "Just watch me."

While staying far enough back to avoid being spotted, Kate threaded her way through New York traffic, keeping Bill Moss in sight. Leaving the city, the BMW took NY 9A N and Sawmill River Parkway. "He's heading toward Westchester County," Castle noted. "Is that where he lives?"

Kate pressed her teeth against her lip. "No, it isn't. He has an apartment in Manhattan. The Mosses have a compound on Long Island, and they also have a home in Georgetown."

Castle nodded. "Georgetown would figure with the political connections. And there's plenty of money on the island. My house in the Hamptons is minuscule compared to some of the estates out there. But there's plenty of money up here too. Visiting Friends? A mistress? A boyfriend?"

Kate shrugged. "I don't know Castle. We'll just have to find out, but if the roads get too rural, it's going to be hard to follow him unnoticed. I'm wishing we'd called in a second team, to play leapfrog. But it's too late now." Kate continued to follow until Moss turned onto a private road, leading up to a large house surrounded by woods, on a hill. "I'm going to find a place we can hide the car down here. Castle. "If we don't want to be seen, we'll have to walk up there. Wish I wasn't wearing heels."

"Words I never thought I'd hear come out of Kate Beckett's mouth," Castle remarked. "You could stay back here, and I could sneak up there." He pointed to his Strandmok captoe oxfords. "I generally prefer flats. Less strain on the lower back. These even have rubber soles."

Kate rolled her eyes. "I appreciate the offer, Castle, but you're not a cop, and we have no idea what's going on inside that house. I'll be fine."

Kate found a sheltered spot where she could park without being spotted from above, and she and Castle carefully picked their way through the woods. Behind her as usual, Castle made a point of being in a position to catch her if she fell. He hoped he wasn't being obvious enough about it to ruffle her feathers, but when she stumbled backward into his arms, she seemed to genuinely appreciate the save.

Moss had parked his BMW beside a Mercedes and a bus. Kate pointed at the vehicles. "I'm going to run the plates and see who else is here. I don't think a mistress' hideaway would come with bus transport."

"Not unless our Bill is not nearly so boring as he seemed," Castle quipped.

Kate crouched with Castle in the trees while she waited for the report to come back on her phone. "You know," Castle observed, "under other circumstances, this could be romantic. Light filtering through the trees. Birds singing. It wouldn't be a bad spot for an intimate picnic, a bottle of wine, some grapes, some cheese. Damn! I just remembered that we missed lunch."

Kate's phone dinged. "Castle, those plates belong to a bus that was supposedly decommissioned. It must have been stolen. And the Mercedes belongs to an Ivan Vasiliev. I'll have Ryan run background on him. The house belongs to a holding company. We'll have to trace that down too."

"Isn't that enough, Kate?" Castle asked. "We should go. If someone sees us, it's not like you could outrun them here."

"Castle I really want to see who gets on that bus."

"What if no one gets on it?" Castle protested. "What if it's just parked here. Or what if it's a bunch of Russians with Kalashnikovs?"

"All right. Castle. We'll go back to the car, but if that bus leaves within the next couple of hours, we're going to follow it."

After a cautious trip back through the woods, Castle reached into his back pocket and offered a bag to Kate as he settled into the passenger seat of her unit. "Beef jerky? It's not Giovani's, but it's better than nothing."

"Castle, do you ever travel without food?" Kate asked.

"Not if I can help it," Castle answered. "It has more to do with Alexis, that it does with me. We used to go on all kinds of jaunts together when she was younger, and if we went too long between snack stops, she'd get cranky, which would make me cranky. So, I just got in the habit of always having something on me. It's a dad thing."

"Yeah, come to think of it, my father usually had something to eat in his pockets too. What flavor is that?"

"Filet mignon."

"Figures, you always do love to go first class."

"Of course," Castle replied. "Look who I'm with."


	18. Chapter 18

Emergence

Chapter 18

It was beginning to get dark when the bus, fully loaded, pulled past the spot where Beckett's unit was camouflaged under the trees. "Do my eyes deceive me, or was that thing full of women?" Castle asked while Beckett mentally counted a few seconds before leaving the shelter of the woods to follow the larger vehicle.

"Your eyes are fine, Castle," Kate answered. "I didn't get a good look, but most of them seemed young and reasonably attractive."

"Not nearly as hot as present company," Castle said, "but they didn't look bad. With access to women like that, I wonder what Bill Moss needed with poor Gertrud."

"Maybe he doesn't have access to them," Kate speculated. "Or maybe they're not as expendable as Gertrud was. They might have skills Moss needs for whatever is going on in that house. We're about to get to a main road. It will be easier to blend in with traffic."

"Whoa," Castle cautioned. "Looks like they're stopping. What do you think they're doing?"

"I don't know, Castle; we'll just have to pull over and wait 'til they get going again. At least there's more shadow to hide in now. If the sun were still out, they'd spot us easily. If they're going back to the city, they won't be able to take the same route Bill took to get here. Commercial vehicles aren't permitted on the parkways." The bus was only stopped for a few moments before it continued to an interstate route. "I'm going to try to pull alongside," Kate said. "maybe we can figure out what they were doing when they stopped."

"I can see in," Castle declared as Kate came even with the larger vehicle. "The ladies all look asleep."

"Or drugged," Kate suggested grimly. "Maybe someone didn't want them to know where they'd been." The bus continued on a circuitous route until reaching the city, where the women, now apparently awake, were dropped off at several stops.

Kate followed the now passenger-free bus to the Brooklyn New York Bus salvage yard, where it was left. "Looks like the driver is heading for the subway," Castle noted. "We know why the bus was listed as decommissioned. It must actually have been. Someone just pulled some strings to borrow it. Seems like a lot of trouble to get a group of ladies up to Westchester."

"Obviously someone is being very careful that whatever the ladies are doing, they don't know where they're doing it, or most likely for whom," Kate offered.

"When we find out, it should make a great chapter in my next book, but that doesn't get us any closer to clearing Bob," Castle noted.

"You're right," Kate admitted, "we really need DNA on Bill Moss, and we need to know what CSU came up with on the heroin. We should know about the heroin in the morning, and I'll have teams on Bill Moss until they manage to snag a coffee cup or a water bottle, something we can get DNA off of."

"So," Castle inquired, "the precinct or the loft?"

"You think Giovani's is still open?" Kate asked.

"If they aren't, I'm sure we can arrange something," Castle replied, "with banana peppers."

* * *

"Dad," Alexis greeted Castle when he and Kate finally returned to the loft. "Gina called three times. She said you weren't accepting her calls. She's gone back to threatening to pour honey on your eyeballs and covering you in fire ants if she doesn't get your next chapter tomorrow morning."

"I knew her threats would get redundant sooner or later," Castle said. "Not a problem. Almost finished."

Kate put a hand on his arm. "Sometimes I forget you're working double time."

"It's fine," Castle assured her. "I really did almost finish while we were in the car. It won't take me long. If you want to turn in before I'm done, I'll join you as soon as I can. No reason for both of us to get blearier than we already are."

"All right," Kate agreed. "maybe I'll find something to inspire you to write fast."

Castle grinned. "I look forward to it,"

Castle climbed wearily into bed at one A.M. He'd finished his chapter an hour before, but decided to get a start on another one, to compensate for the time he'd still be spending clearing Bob Weldon. Kate had been true to her word, wearing a filmy teddy, held together by ribbons and a couple of snaps guarding her most intimate access. She was sound asleep, and he wasn't inclined to wake her. He just spooned around her, feeling her warmth flow into his body.

* * *

Kate's cell phone rang at six A.M. The sleep was evident in her voice when she answered. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Detective Beckett," Max apologized, "but I have the results of the analysis of the heroin in the syringe that was the murder weapon in Gertrud Yoder's death. Your hunch was right. It has the same characteristics as the heroin seized from Vulcan Simmons' operation."

"Max," Kate asked, "if someone were going to obtain heroin in the vicinity of City Hall or the mayor's residence in Gracie Mansion, would it match up with what you found?"

"No ma'am," Max declared. "We've had several samples from those areas. They had different combinations of impurities. The perpetrator would have had to get the heroin in the syringe from someone associated with Simmons, or from an evidence locker."

"Thanks, Max. You've been really helpful."

Castle stirred beside her and rubbed his hand over his face. "Good news?"

"Not bad news. Bob Weldon would have had a hard time getting access to the kind of heroin in the syringe found at the hotel. It's looking more and more likely that someone, probably Bill Moss, planted Bob's fingerprints while Bob was unconscious."

Castle sat up. "That is good news! If we stay on Bill Moss, we should be able to vindicate Bob completely. I just hope it's soon."

Kate gazed at Castle, stretching her lithe limbs. "The teams I have on Moss are watching to see if he returns to his office or his apartment, but it will probably be a couple of hours yet before they see any movement."

Castle tugged at one of the ribbons on Kate's diaphanous covering. "Whatever can we do to pass the time?"

Kate slipped her hands beneath his t-shirt. "We could go back to sleep." Her hands traveled lower. "But you seem to be pretty thoroughly awake."

Castle fingered a pink bud revealed as Kate's flimsy garment slipped away. "So, do you." He pulled her into his arms. "We'll just have to figure out something else."

Kate climbed across his hips. "I guess we will."

Castle reached out to release her snaps. "An idea is coming to me."

Kate gasped as her growing heat met his. She leaned forward, moistening her lips with her tongue before pressing them to his mouth, but pulled back as the juicer roared in the kitchen.

"You've got to be kidding me," Castle moaned. "If one of the redheads is going to be up this early, she could at least have the decency to do it quietly and with coffee."

"Babe," Kate asked, "did you lock the bedroom door when you came to bed?"

"Mm," Castle confirmed. "I had hopes."

"Yeah, well so did I," Kate confided. "And I can ignore what's happening in the kitchen if you can."

"You're right," Castle agreed, pushing Kate's hair from her face as she bent toward him again. "Suddenly I don't hear a thing." They came together again in a blazing cone of imagined silence.

A/N Yes, Guest, you guessed right about Caspar. He is an homage.


	19. Chapter 19

Emergence

Chapter 19

"The team on Bill Moss says that he just entered a coffee house," Beckett reported, two minutes after she and Castle arrived at the Twelfth Precinct. She jammed her phone back in her pocket. "It's not far from here."

"Ooh, are we going to get in on the great DNA caper?" Castle asked.

"We can try," Kate replied. "Deep as Moss is in all this, he might recognize us. We'll have to be careful not to be seen."

"Circumspect as a mouse in a cat hotel," Castle declared.

Kate's team informed her that Moss had entered the Java Hut from front door. Kate and Castle went into a banking complex abutting the shop, slipped in through a side door, and took seats in a booth the back. "Can you see him?" Castle whispered.

"I think I can see his legs," Kate said. "Long ones, sticking out from a table with what looks like the same color shoes he was wearing yesterday."

"Mm, poop brown," Castle recalled. "Best personality fit, ever."

Kate ducked back. "He's standing up. Looks like he's leaving."

"Did he leave his cup on the table like an inconsiderate slob or is he throwing it in the trash?" Castle queried, as Kate peeked out again at the retreating figure.

"I don't think he's carrying anything. Looks like inconsiderate slob." Kate slid to the edge of the upholstered bench, with the balls of her feet on the floor, ready to move the moment Bill Moss was out the door.

She and Castle rushed toward the table where Moss had been. Castle eyed the name on the paper cup which had been left behind. "Bill M. It was him, alright."

Slipping on a glove, Kate dropped the cup into an evidence bag. "Our team watching from the front can confirm that, but it looks like this may be it."

"I think," Castle declared, "this calls for a celebratory latte, at least until we have time for something stronger. Two pumps of sugar free vanilla?"

Kate winked. "Make it three."

* * *

"What's all this about?" Bill Moss demanded, from his perch on the edge of his chair in the interrogation room.

"Just some things we're trying to clear up about a case, Mr. Moss," Kate told him. "There's some evidence that seems to be a little contradictory. Do you know Gertrud Yoder?"

"The prostitute who was killed by the mayor? Of course not, Detective. I really don't need prostitutes. As you're probably aware, my family is both wealthy and highly influential. There's never a shortage of women eager for my company."

"Funny, I thought that if that's what attracts a woman to a man, she meets the definition. It's merely a matter of price. But you know it's strange then," Castle told him, "you were seen with Gertrud in the bar at the Evermore Hotel."

"I'm sure whoever told you that was mistaken," Moss asserted.

Kate's eyes narrowed as her face lost any semblance of accommodation. "The video taken in the hotel bar was not mistaken, Mr. Moss. Nor was the lab, that your DNA was found on her body."

"But the mayor's fingerprints were found on the syringe that killed her," Moss insisted.

"Yes, they were," Mr. Moss, "but that little detail was never released to the press, to avoid prejudicing a jury. There's no way you could have known, unless, of course, you made sure they were there."

Moss crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I want a lawyer."

"Yes, Mr. Moss," Kate replied. "I'm sure you do."

Kate's cell rang as Moss was taken to holding. Kate's brows rose as she listened. "What?" Castle demanded as she put her phone away.

"We know what was happening at the house in Westchester. On the basis of my report about the women who appeared drugged, the Westchester County Sheriff obtained a warrant to move in on the house, at the time Moss was being brought in here."

"High class bordello?" Castle guessed.

"No counting house, as in counting receipts from what was left of Simmons' operation and some other influxes of cash that have yet to be checked. The Westchester Department of Public Safety has their own forensics unit that is going over the place. They've already found a little stash of heroin. Maybe it was used as a reward for top performing employees. Where the money is concerned, they can interface with Barry Shultz from my commission, to trace it all down. They'll have to untangle how Ivan Vasiliev is involved too. There's evidence of ties with the Russian mob."

Castle swiped at his forehead. "Wow, you really did expose a dark underbelly of evil. Putting everything together, all that has got to be enough to get the D.A. to drop the charges against Bob Weldon."

"Especially if the heroin found at the house in Westchester can be matched to what was used to kill Gertrud Yoder," Kate agreed. "That will make the case against Bill Moss pretty solid. With the forensics analysts knowing what they're comparing it to, the tests shouldn't take long."

* * *

Bob Weldon clinked glasses with Rick and Kate in his office. "I don't know what I would have done without the two of you. Kate, the public just loves to find out that a spoiled rich boy like Bill Moss was up to no good. It's raised your profile - again. It's also given a boost to the Anti-Crime Commission."

"We'll need it," Kate said. "There are still a lot of trails to follow, and we'll be working in concert with the FBI, the DEA, the IRS, the Federal Elections Commission and maybe more agencies that haven't gotten around to appointing a liaison yet."

"Sounds like you're going to be needing more staff," Weldon noted.

"Uh huh," Kate acknowledged. "Mike Long has already put together a proposal to bring to the City Council. I doubt he'll meet with much resistance."

"How about your gubernatorial run, Bob?" Castle asked.

Weldon shrugged. "I don't know Rick. Even with all the charges dropped against me, it may be a long time before Bill Moss is actually convicted. You know that his lawyers are going to use every trick in the book to delay it. Until he's declared guilty, I won't be officially absolved in the eyes of many of the voters in this state, or even right here in the city. For some, I may never be free of the scandal. People believe what they want to believe. A run for governor may have to wait, but with the help of Kate and the other members of her commission, there's a lot more I can do for this city. That will have to do, at least for now. In a few more years, we'll see."

"And you can count on me to support you whenever you're ready," Castle promised.

Weldon clasped Castle's hand warmly. "I don't know how either of you could possibly give me more support than already have, but I appreciate that Rick."

"Besides further unraveling the infamy behind the felonious frame of our mayor, what's next for you on the Anti-Crime Commission?" Castle asked, as he opened the passenger door of his Mercedes for Kate.

"I think I'll still be unraveling for a long time, Castle. We know there were cops involved with Bracken. Some of those relationships may have survived with the Moss operation. Other cops may have been pulled in. I need to ferret them out wherever they are. If the N.Y.P.D. isn't clean, I can't keep roadblocks from being thrown in front of any criminal investigation."

"That may not make you the most popular person on the force," Castle observed.

"Maybe not," Kate allowed, "but I'm not going after many of the things IA looks into. I don't care about a little fudging of sick time or unauthorized use of computers. I'm looking for deep seated, longstanding involvement in corruption. I don't think any honest cop wants to be touched by that. I think most of us realize we'll all be better off if the public can have confidence that the crooks are on the other side."

"Good for you," Castle said. "And you know who'll be on your side, always."

Kate reached up to caress his cheek. "I do."


	20. Chapter 20

Emergence

Chapter 20

"You were speaking Russian in your sleep again last night," Castle remarked as he topped off Kate's second cup of coffee at the counter in the loft."

Kate raked her fingers through her hair. "I'm not surprised, Castle. I'm working with the commission's guy from the RICO team, Marshall Lannister. We've been digging into connections with the Russian mob. I started with Vasiliev, but it's gone much deeper than that and I'm finding real indications that it involves some bad actors in the N.Y.P.D."

"How so?" Castle asked.

"Evidence lost, complaints not being properly investigated," Kate explained. "I think the Russians have been getting a free pass in some quarters, and it's been going on for a long time, longer than I've been on the force."

"So, what are you going to do about it?" Castle queried.

"Keep turning over rocks. Marshall is actually doing most of the work until I have a really solid connection to the department."

"It's not like you don't have another job," Castle noted. "Although we haven't had a body drop lately."

"What's the matter, Castle? Upset that no one's been murdered?"

"That does sound bad," Castle acknowledged. "I wouldn't wish that grief on anyone's family. But I do miss my excuse for procrastination and to gather fresh details I can use in my book. There has been quite a lull."

Kate's cell phone rang, and she listened for a moment. "Got it," she responded to the voice on the other end. "You spoke too soon, Castle," Kate informed him, slipping her phone into her pocket. We have another body, and it will be all hands on deck. It's a cop."

* * *

Perlmutter crouched by the corpse. He nodded at Kate. "Haven't seen you in a while, Detective." He scowled at Rick. "Or you, Mr. Castle, a situation I've enjoyed very much."

"Nice to see you too, Perlmutter," Castle responded.

"What's the COD?" Kate inquired.

"Blunt force trauma," Perlmutter informed her. "No defensive wounds so far. Looks like our killer came up behind Detective Palmer and…," Perlmutter pantomimed a blow, "bashed his head in."

"So far, we haven't found a weapon," Ryan reported. "Looks like the killer took it with him."

"Do we know it's a he?" Kate questioned.

"Detective Ryan may be jumping to conclusions," Perlmutter interjected, "but from the angle of the blow, we do know that the murderer was taller than the Detective Palmer by at least several inches. I can be more exact than that when I get the body to the lab."

Kate pulled Castle aside. "Babe, Detective Palmer is one of the cops I suspect had ties to the Russian mob."

Castle put a hand to his open mouth. "Seriously? Do you think they're trying to tie up loose ends like Bracken did with Raglan and McCallister? Oh God, Kate! If they know you suspected Palmer, they might come after you."

"No one knows, Castle. I haven't revealed the names of the cops I suspected to anyone, not even on the commission. But the connection could emerge when we investigate Palmer's murder. We're going to have to be very careful, Castle. Right now, this is between you and me."

"We don't even tell the boys?" Castle queried. "Kate, Ryan and Espo are loyal to you and the department."

"I have no doubt of that," Kate said, "but they have occasionally had loose lips, especially Espo, and after being special ops, he should know better. For all we know so far, Palmer could have been taken out by someone he put in jail, who was out for revenge. If that's the case, the boys don't need to get pulled into the Russian thing at all."

"But your gut tells you otherwise, doesn't it?" Castle surmised.

"Yes, it does," Kate admitted. "And if I'm right, there may be more dead cops soon."

* * *

"The killer was at least six six," Perlmutter announced when Kate and Castle visited the morgue.

"That should narrow our suspect pool a lot," Castle said.

"I can narrow it a lot more," Perlmutter declared proudly. "Your killer was left-handed."

"That may be helpful later, Perlmutter," Kate acknowledged, "but heights are in the DMV database, handedness is not, and that's place to begin a search.

"If I recall, from my research, persons that tall are less than two-tenths of the population," Castle said.

Kate smiled up at him. "You would know a thing like that."

"And lefties are ten percent," Perlmutter added.

In a city of over eight million people, that still gives us a lot of work to do," Castle observed.

"Listen, Castle," Kate said when the couple was safely inside the privacy of her unit, "I wouldn't say anything in front of Perlmutter, but there is a database of suspected members of the Russian mob. Vasiliev is in it. It's not organized by height and obviously not by handedness, but we can use it to narrow down whatever hits we get from the DMV. It's going to be a lot of work running the comparison."

"Doesn't Tech have software to do that?" Castle inquired.

"Yeah, but I have no idea how clean that department is, and even if the people are, the software may not be. Lannister told me that software from a Russian company was installed on a lot of publicly owned machines, and now it's suspect."

"What if we get the tech help from another source?" Castle queried.

"Like who?" Kate asked. "We have to be able to trust them, Castle. It has to be someone the Russians could not possibly have compromised."

"Trust me. I know a guy," Castle assured her.

"Babe, you've got to be kidding me!" Kate exclaimed as Castle led the way to an underground bunker in New Jersey.

"No, this is where he lives. He might be a little paranoid."

"A little?" Kate repeated.

"So, he thinks the world is full of commies out to get him," Castle admitted. "He never got past early eighties television. But that's good, right? He'd never have anything to do with Russians or much of anyone for that matter. He likes his privacy."

So how did you tie up with him?" Kate queried.

"Complete accident. He read one of my early books and wrote to me claiming I got everything wrong, which I probably did. Anyway, we started a correspondence, and he's helped me out on a few things. He does remote freelance research for me and some other writers I know. I don't know who else he works for. He's not very forthcoming about his business."

Kate snorted and rolled her eyes.

Castle knocked on the door in a cha cha rhythm. "He's a fan _of Dancing With The Stars_ , he explained, before a buzzer sounded and the door released. Myron Plotzkin stared suspiciously at Kate. "A police chick, Rick?"

"She's okay, Myron," Castle vowed. "She's the reason we're here. Her name is Kate, and she's going after Russian mobsters."

With lightspeed, a grin overtook Myron's scruffy face. "Oh yeah? What do you need Kate?"

Kate quickly explained about the databases.

"You give me sign-ons, and I can do that while you wait," Myron bragged, using his hand to try to tame the overlong frizz of his hair. Kate was hesitant but knew she could change the passwords he'd asked for anyway, pretty much the minute she and Castle left. Once she gave Myron what he'd requested, his fingers flew over his keyboard and data streamed down his display. "Want a drink while you wait?" Myron offered. "There's Sunny Delight in the fridge."

Castle gave an almost imperceptible nod to Kate. "Sure Myron," she answered. "One of my favorites."

By the time Kate had drained her bottle of the sweet orangey mix, Myron had an answer. "Here's your commie red," he announced. "He's calling himself Sasha Borisov. No doubt son of Boris and Natasha."

"Well then, we'll make like Moose and Squirrel and track him down," Castle replied. "You want your payment in the usual way, Myron?"

"Cherry Cola flavor, Rick." Myron requested.

Castle pulled out his phone, rapidly keying in an order. "On their way. And we had better be too. Alexis has a fencing matching after school, and I don't want to miss it."

Myron waved Rick and Kate out the door. "Tell the half-pint to score a touché for me."

"What exactly are you paying Myron in cherry cola flavor? Kate inquired as Rick slid behind the wheel."

"Nothing much," Castle answered. "He just likes cases of Twizzlers."

Kate shook her head as Rick started the car.


	21. Chapter 21

Emergence

Chapter 21

Castle jumped up applauding wildly as Alexis made her final touch to win the competition. "This calls for a celebration," he declared after she'd changed out of her fencing gear. "Super-sized burgers? Pizza? Impossibly large banana splits?"

"Dad, can I take a rain check?" Alexis requested. "I have a paper due tomorrow."

Castle's eyebrows rose. "I'm the one who procrastinates. Usually you have your papers written way ahead of when they're due. What's up, Pumpkin?"

"I did have it written ahead," Alexis replied, "but I ran it through the plagiarism checker before school this morning. I didn't copy from anything. You know I didn't, Dad. But there was almost identical wording on a website, so I have to rewrite it."

"Occasionally great minds do think alike," Castle comforted. "I've had readers accuse me of stealing from books that even with my prodigious devouring of the written word, I'd never even read. You know what they say about monkeys and typewriters." Castle gazed at the look on his daughter's face. "Bad analogy. But seriously, let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

Alexis' shoulders slumped. "I don't think there will be. But thanks, Dad."

* * *

"You don't think Alexis got hacked, do you?" Kate asked, when Alexis had settled in her room. "Someone could have read her paper and posted it as their own."

"Not here in the loft. Kate. Our firewall records every ping," Castle informed her. "Hackers try to break in all the time, but so far no one's made it through. That's why we can work here. But if Alexis took her laptop somewhere with public Wi-Fi, it's a possibility. I'll talk to her about getting stronger protection for her laptop for when it's not behind the parapets of the Castle network."

Kate plopped down on the couch. "Castle, it looks like everywhere we turn, we spend at least half our time trying to keep someone from knowing what we're doing. I know you trust Myron, but I still changed my passwords to the data bases he was using."

"It was a reasonable precaution," Castle allowed. "You never know when the man might go crazy on a Twizzler high. You're right Kate, but unless you want to go back to dead tree mode, we just have to stay smart. And speaking of that, how are you going to explain having Sasha Borisov as a suspect to the boys, and how are we going to check him out without tipping the Russian mob to your investigation?"

"I don't know, Castle," Kate confessed. "I'll figure something out. I'll sleep on it."

"Just don't take any naps in the precinct when you might be mumbling in Russian," Castle cautioned.

Kate wrapped her arms around his neck. "Castle, it is definitely more fun to take my naps here."

* * *

"Yo," Esposito called as Kate and Castle entered the bullpen. "We got Palmer's financials. Something's not right."

"How?" Kate queried.

"The man had too much money," Ryan said. "It's nothing obvious. He's not living in a mansion or driving a Mercedes."

"I resemble that remark," Castle objected.

"You're not a cop, Bro," Esposito reminded him.

"The man had investments," Ryan went on. "He made steady deposits into a brokerage account. He's a silent partner in a cop bar. No competition to The Old Haunt, but not a bad place. If you put it all together, it adds up to a nest egg no cop could afford, at least not an honest cop."

"If he was on the take, maybe whoever was paying him off decided to take him out," Esposito suggested.

"Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing," Kate said. "I reached out to one of my CIs. He gave me an idea where Palmer's supplementary funding might have been coming from. You guys keep doing what you're doing, checking into Palmer's background and contacts. Castle and I are going to follow up my lead."

"That was very neatly done," Castle complimented Kate, as she turned the key in the ignition of her unit. "A CI is an excuse that covers a lot of territory."

"It wasn't an excuse, Castle," Kate insisted. "Myron is a confidential informant; about as confidential as an informant can get. The fact that's you're feeding his sugar habit instead of me slipping him a few bucks, is irrelevant."

Castle shrugged. "If you say so. Are we going to stake out Borisov?'

"In a way," Kate confirmed. "I want to find out where he goes and who he talks to, especially if it's another cop."

Castle put a hand on Kate's arm. "What if he tries to do more than talk?"

Kate's shoulders stiffened. "Then we do our best to stop him."

* * *

"Looks like you've got the route memorized," Castle observed as Kate smoothly turned onto Shore Parkway, on their way to Brighton Beach.

"I told you I spend time in Little Odessa," Kate reminded him. "It's been a while since my semester in Russia, so I go to Brighton to keep up my language skills. I'm hoping they'll come in handy now. Borisov has an apartment in the Oceana. A lot of the better fixed of the Russian community live there. There's a tea shop, the Samovar, not too far away. I used to like to sit there. A lot of the tenants from the Oceana drop in. I thought we'd get a table, sip some tea, nibble some halva, and I'll listen to the neighborhood chatter. Then if we don't get anything from that, we could try the backgammon tables at the Second Street Park. If we don't pick up anything there, we can try staking out the Oceana, but we'd be noticed after a while. The kleptocrats like their privacy."

"Like the Russian mobster who you kept from shooting me at the poker game in Chinatown." Castle recalled."

Kate nodded and laughed. "But with fewer tattoos and more discretion."

"I notice you didn't say fewer guns," Castle observed.

"I don't know, Castle," Kate replied. "It only takes one. Just be a lot more careful than you were in Chinatown."

* * *

Castle sighed contentedly. "I never have quite understood drinking hot tea from a glass, but if there's a heaven, someone there definitely makes halvah."

"It is incredible," Kate agreed, "but some of the conversation I've been picking up on is better."

"Why, what do you hear?" Castle queried.

"They're talking about vysokiy muzhchina, that's tall man, taking care of business."

"And you think they're talking about Sasha Borisov?" Castle asked.

"There's a good chance of it," Kate said. "They sound nervous. A lot of the people here immigrated to the United States for safety. I can understand why having someone like him in residence would bring back old fears."

"Anything specific?" Castle asked.

Kate shook her head. "No. But it looks like we might be on to the right guy, Castle. We'll just have to keep at it."

"If keeping at it involves eating more halvah, I'm all for that," Castle declared.

"There's another place you might like more than the park I mentioned before," Kate suggested. "A Russian bookstore. I once saw one of your novels translated into Russian there. Residents of the neighborhood hang around there to talk, too. And the Tula gingerbread isn't bad either."

"Kate, I'm not sure if we came here for a stake out or because you had a yen for Russian cuisine," Castle teased. "Either way, I'm going to have to spend a lot of time at the gym, or at least fencing with Alexis, when we're finished tracking down Borisov."

"Oh, don't worry, Castle," Kate purred. "I'll make sure you get enough exercise."

A/N There is a big Russian community in Brighton Beach. There is an Oceana. There is a Russian Bookstore in Brighten Beach and there is a Second Street Park where Backgammon has been played. The Samovar is made up and I have no idea if the Russian bookstore serves anything to eat.


	22. Chapter 22

Emergence

Chapter 22

"We need to find out what Ryan and Espo have," Kate said, as she drove to the precinct.

"And if they found a Russian connection?" Castle inquired.

"Then we coordinate with them on Sasha Borisov but tell them to keep their mouths shut, so they don't screw up the investigation of the Russian mob that the Anti-Crime Commission is doing," Kate replied. "I think Espo will buy that, especially since it's true."

"I think we'd best add that it will keep the Russians from coming after commission members - meaning you," Castle suggested. "Espo is always on your side, sometimes too much."

"A little jealous, Castle?" Kate teased.

"Not as long as he sees you at the precinct and I see you in my bed," Castle replied.

"I think if I took a pole dancing class I'd be more his type," Kate said.

"Then maybe I should worry," Castle mused. "You do some very impressive pole dancing."

* * *

As soon as she shoved her purse in her desk, Kate studied the murder board. A notation by Ryan immediately jumped out at her. Palmer had owned a condo in a Russian financed development, with no record of how he'd paid for the unit."

"Strange that he'd choose that condo," Ryan noted, joining her. "It's nowhere near the precinct where he worked or where his family lives."

"It is," Kate agreed, "but it matches up with what Castle and I uncovered."

"And what exactly is that, Beckett?" Esposito demanded, striding to the board. "What mystery lead did your CI give you?"

Kate and Rick exchanged looks. "Look, guys," Kate told Esposito and Ryan, "we have a suspect with a Russian connection, but if that gets out before we nail him, my anti-corruption case will be in jeopardy."

"And so will Kate," Castle added. "Loose lips won't just sink ships. They could torpedo the city's most gorgeous homicide detective, permanently."

"I read you, Bro," Esposito acknowledged.

"Alright," Kate continued. "I won't put this up on the board. You guys will have to take your own notes or commit what I tell you, to memory." Kate quickly filled them in on what she and Castle had uncovered on Sasha Borisov.

"Sound's like you'd make Perlmutter happy if you could establish that he's left-handed, or better still, find the murder weapon," Ryan mused.

"We should be able to do at least one of those things if you guys will help us out with the surveillance," Kate said. "We'll have to be really subtle. If Borisov figures out he's being watched, it will all be over."

"I can be subtle," Esposito claimed.

"You better be, partner," Ryan warned.

* * *

"At least alternating with Ryan and Espo, we get to take care of our more urgent needs," Castle commented. Despite Kate being behind the wheel, the two of them were doing their stakeout in his Mercedes, in order to blend in better with the cars belonging to the occupants of the Oceana.

"Why, Castle, do you have to pee?" Kate inquired.

"Actually I was thinking of eating and sleeping. I just wish you hadn't brought peeing up because now I do have to."

Kate checked her watch. "The boys will be taking over in half an hour; I'm sure you can hold out that long."

"For almost three years, I held out through Sorenson, Demming and Josh, Kate. I can manage. But it wasn't comfortable then, and it won't be comfortable now."

"I wasn't having the best time waiting through Gina, either," Kate confided. "Why did we do that to ourselves; to each other?" she wondered.

Castle shrugged. "I don't know Kate, but…ooh, that towering figure has got to be Borisov. Get down!" Rick and Kate both ducked down as far as they could with Castle sticking up the edge of his phone, so the camera could catch a view of their suspect. "It looks like he's headed for the 750i. Makes sense. A lot of headroom in that car."

"It shouldn't be hard to follow," Kate noted, "especially if we're switching off with the boys. Not that many of them on the road. Good thing he isn't into Fords, like Derrick Storm."

"What can I say?" Castle returned. "I wanted my hero to buy American. But I do see your point. Borisov's pulling out."

Kate counted silently to herself before pulling out. "Call the boys," she advised Castle.

Borisov drove to Manhattan, staying just beneath the speed limit, unusual for the driver of a car with as much engine as a 750i. "He is being careful not to do anything that would get him noticed by the local constabulary," Castle observed.

"Then he's not as smart as he thinks he is," Kate asserted. "Most cops consider drivers safe if they're going five miles over the speed limit when conditions permit. Borisov would get noticed, obviously not cited or pulled over, but noticed. We can check the traffic cams in the area where Palmer was killed, for cars, especially 750i's going just below the speed limit. That will put him in the area. If we're really lucky, he may have parked in a lot or parking garage with surveillance."

Castle wiggled an eyebrow, "Sounds like a job for that master of media, Ryan."

"Castle, I think you're getting him mixed up with Raley in your Nikki Heat books,"

"Not really a whole lot of difference," Castle admitted. "When I steal, I steal whole hog."

As soon as Ryan and Esposito pulled in behind her, Kate took the next turn.

"Kate, can you pull into a gas station or fast food joint?" Castle suggested, squirming in his seat.

Smiling, Kate laid a hand on his thigh. "Sure, Castle. I could use a restroom trip myself."

* * *

Castle stretched and closed his eyes after eating the last bite of the chicken Alfredo Kate had thrown together for dinner. "Best Alfredo ever!" he declared.

"It really was excellent, Katherine," Martha agreed.

"Too bad Alexis had study group and had to miss it," Castle added.

"I don't think she'd be doing much eating anyway," Martha said. "She only got a B+ on the paper she had to rewrite."

"What's wrong with a B+?" Kate asked.

"Nothing, unless you're Alexis Castle," Rick replied. "She's absolutely determined to get into whatever college she wants and is convinced that the slightest threat to her GPA is a disaster."

"Mm, a bunch of the kids I went to Stuy with was like that," Kate remembered. "But Alexis shouldn't worry, she has such a great record."

"Perhaps you should talk to her Katherine." Martha waved at Castle. "Richard got himself expelled just before graduation from high school. He never had the obsession for academic excellence that Alexis has. He's useless in this."

Rick's hands fisted under the table. "Very true, mother. My obsession was with becoming a writer. I'm useless except for supporting you and earning the money to pay for whatever college Alexis chooses."

Martha ignored Castle's jibe. "Ah, well, be that it may, it would help for Alexis to talk to someone with a true comprehension of her attitude toward school achievement."

Kate put her hand on Castle's arm. "I can do it, Babe. Alexis has come to me for advice before. I felt the way she feels when I was at the academy. I had to be the best. I still feel that way a lot of the time."

Castle cupped her cheek. "I'm familiar with that aspect of your personality. Fine. Talk to Alexis. She respects you. Perhaps you can accomplish something I can't."


	23. Chapter 23

Emergence

Chapter 23

"Where's Dad?" Alexis asked as Kate came into the kitchen."

"In the shower," Kate replied, starting a pot of double strength coffee. "He's having a little trouble waking up. He was up late writing last night."

"Yeah, I saw the light on in his office. I couldn't sleep." Alexis confessed, sipping a tumbler of orange juice.

"Worried about school?" Kate asked.

Alexis nodded. "Kate, you got into Stanford. Weren't you worried about keeping your grades up?"

"If I hadn't been, my parents, especially my father, certainly were," Kate confided. "But it was different at Stuy. Since the special high schools skim the top students from all the schools in the city, a lot of us were used to being the smartest one in the room or even the school. But in that company, most of us weren't anymore. We had to get used to that and live with it. Most of us won Regents scholarships, which I couldn't use for Stanford, anyway. And most of us did very well on our SAT's, but I think there was a feeling that we were all in the college admissions thing together. That helped. But when I was in the police academy, it was different. I was so angry, so determined. I couldn't let anyone get out in front of me."

"And you're a great cop," Alexis offered.

"But not because of the way I was in the academy, or even early in my career. As a detective, I always had to be right, smarter than everyone else. Your dad was a shock to my system. When he insisted on upending our very first case together, he kept me from sending an innocent man to jail, and a developmentally disabled innocent man at that. I would never have found my mother's killer either, if your dad hadn't forced the issue. There is always stuff I don't see. There's always stuff I don't know. And it will always be that way. No matter how smart you are, Alexis, and you are very smart, there is always going to be someone smarter, more talented, more accomplished. You not only have to learn to live with that, but you should also try to appreciate it because those are the people who can push you to be better. If you don't get into the college of your choice, it's not the end of the world. It wasn't for me when I transferred out of Stanford and finished college in New York. It was a new beginning. You have to take what comes and make the best you can of it."

"It's really hard Kate," Alexis responded.

"I know it is," Kate told her. "I'm still working on it, every day. But it does get better."

Castle wandered into the kitchen, with his hair still wet, and rubbing his eyes. "Is that coffee I smell?"

"It is," Kate answered. "It's still brewing, but should be ready soon."

Castle rubbed his hands together. "Outstanding! Anyone in the mood for Richard Castle's special pancakes?"

A smile pushed its way to Alexis' lips. "Yeah, Dad. I am."

* * *

"Do you want to take my car for watching Borisov, or pick up your unit at the precinct?" Castle asked as he and Kate cleared away the dishes.

"Let's take your car. Then Espo can switch off with us later," Kate decided, "by himself, if Ryan is still scrubbing video."

"Or we might get lucky and see Borisov do something we can use," Castle offered hopefully. "Maybe we can get a shot of him lifting a glass of chai left-handed, or better still, leading us to the murder weapon."

"Maybe Castle, but you know stakeouts aren't like on TV where the whole story has to fit into forty-two minutes. Sometimes things take weeks, months, or years. And from the chatter I've heard, Borisov has been at this for a while. That means he's a survivor."

"Maybe," Castle allowed. "But he hasn't been up against Caskett before."

"What?"

"Caskett. That's our team name."

"Aside from the question of why we would need a team name, why does your name come first?" Kate demanded.

"Because Beckle would sound silly and Caskett fits the whole murder thing. And team names are fun, like Raley and Ochoa are Roach in my books."

"I'm not sure Ryan and Esposito exactly enjoy being portrayed as an infestation," Kate said. "But you do have a point. Borisov hasn't been up against us before."

As far as Kate and Rick could tell, Borisov had stayed in his apartment at the Oceana all morning. Castle was beginning to think that maybe the tall cop killer would be staying in all day, when the man emerged, carrying a traveling cup. "He's holding his cup in his left hand," Castle noted, snapping a picture.

"That's something, Castle, but it doesn't prove anything," Kate said. "Let's see where he goes."

Borisov started his car and pulled out quickly. "Looks like he's in a hurry," Castle remarked. "You think he brings a beverage along when he's planning to snuff someone?"

Kate started the Mercedes. "Castle, he might just be late for an appointment or to meet his girlfriend. We'll just have to find out. If he is in a hurry, he may be distracted enough that he'll be easier to follow unnoticed. I hope so. But better call Esposito to come and get in the game."

Borisov drove to a parking garage. Kate parked two rows away from Borisov's 750i.

"He's just sitting in the car," Castle grumbled.

"He's probably waiting for someone." Kate pulled her gun from her holster and held onto it in her lap. "This could be it, Castle." A Lincoln MKZ pulled into a spot a few cars away from Borisov. A stern looking balding man emerged and walked toward Borisov. "Castle," Kate whispered, "I recognize that guy. It's Lieutenant Marcus Donovan, Gate's number two in IA."

Castle snapped a picture. "If he's meeting Borisov, he must be dirty." Castle declared.

"That would be a good guess," Kate agreed.

"Donovan looks upset," Castle observed.

"He does," Kate agreed. "And Borisov is nodding. I wonder if another cop is about to be hit."

"So, do we stay on Borisov or shadow Donovan?" Castle wondered.

"It looks like we've found a crooked cop the commission didn't have on its list, but we know where we can find Donovan. Under the circumstances, we need to stick to Borisov," Kate answered. "We'll need Esposito, and Ryan too. I wish I knew who else we could trust. My gut says something is about to go down, Castle. And it's not smiley face pancakes."

Donovan returned to his car and left. Borisov departed a few minutes later, with Kate following. Borisov parked across the street from the cop bar in which Palmer had been a silent partner. He retrieved something from his trunk and then returned to sit in his car.

"Kate, was that some kind of cosh that Borisov got out of his trunk?" Castle queried.

"Worse I think," Kate asserted. "The old coshes or saps were mostly made of leather. They'd knock you out or hurt like hell but didn't usually kill. From the way it looked when Borisov hefted it, I think that one is heavy metal. It could be what he used to kill Palmer. I hope Ryan and Esposito make it here soon for backup because if Borisov tries to use that, we're going to have to take him down.


	24. Chapter 24

Emergence

Chapter 24

Borisov disappeared into an alley next to the bar. "There's got to be a back or side door, just to adhere to the fire laws," Kate said. "That's probably where Borisov is going." Her phone dinged with a text. "Ryan says he and Espo should be here in a minute. I'm not sure we have that long. Borisov could be ready to ambush someone. I need to get closer." Kate drew her gun and started to open her car door. Castle pushed his open in tandem. "Babe, you need to stay back."

"No way," Castle informed her. "I may not have a gun, but that's a cop bar, and I can scream really loud."

Kate and Rick were almost across the street when Esposito and Ryan pulled up at the curb. "Backup is here, Castle. Stay behind Espo and Ryan," Kate ordered. A side door came into Kate's sight, just as a man stumbled out of it. A waiting Borisov raised his cosh. A click echoed off brick and concrete as Kate cocked her gun. "Don't even think about it, Borisov."

The stumbling man gazed around in confusion and Borisov grabbed him as a shield. "No, don't you even think about it," his eyes flicked to her badge, "Detective." He began to back toward the other end of the alley.

Castle screamed for help at the top of his lungs and cops began to pour out of both doors of the bar. Kate's line of sight was blocked as the exodus surged toward Borisov. He continued to back away until he heard a click behind him. "You take another step, dirtbag, I've got a nice clean shot at your head," Esposito informed him."

"You made it around the building in record time," Kate told Esposito as she snapped cuffs on Borisov."

Esposito snorted. "Winner of the police 10K run, three years in a row."

"Kate," Castle asked, "can you hitch a ride back to the precinct with Ryan and Espo?" He waved at the assembled N.Y.P.D. crowd. "I want to buy these guys a round."

"Hey Writer Boy, what about us?" Esposito protested.

"Brothers, I take care of my own," Castle assured them. "You and Ryan can each have free drinks for a month at The Old Haunt."

* * *

Shackled to the table in interrogation, Borisov stared down at Kate and Castle. "I have nothing to say," he declared, the flattened vowels of his Russian accent subtle, but detectable.

Kate smiled. "You may change your mind, Sasha," she told him in Russian, before continuing in English. "Mr. Borisov, I just received the results of the testing on the weapon we took from you. You should have cleaned it with bleach. There were traces of DNA from the late David Palmer on it. Traffic cams also show your car in the area where he was killed. And you were caught on an ATM camera near the crime scene. We don't need a confession. The case against you is airtight. Now as to your most recent intended victim, Detective Sweet, you are aware of how many witnesses there were to your attempt use him as a human shield. We also have the bartender who drugged him, in custody. You may remain silent, right up until the moment you're put behind bars for life, that is assuming that Immigration doesn't decide to deport you. I've heard murmurings that something worse than prison may be waiting for you in Russia. Or you can give us who you're working for and perhaps live out your days with some comforts."

"Red Square could get redder," Castle added.

Kate rose from her chair. "Consider the future," she counseled Borisov. She and Castle left the room, and L.T. escorted Borisov back to his cell in Holding.

"So, what are you going to do about Donovan?" Castle asked when he and Kate had returned to her desk. "His meeting with Borisov is pretty damning."

"It is," Kate agreed, "but it doesn't prove criminal behavior. And the bartender couldn't tell us who paid him. The best I can do is use the resources of the commission to keep a watch on Donovan right now. If Borisov flips on him, we'll have him, but if he doesn't, Donovan can still lead us to Russian mob connections we don't know about yet. Either way, for now, we keep a lid on what we know about Donovan. But if Detective Sweet is thinking clearly by now, we should talk to him. There has to be a reason why Donovan wanted him taken out."

* * *

"Damn straight there was a reason why that jerk Donovan would have wanted to have me taken out!" Sweet exclaimed. "I was pretty sure he was on the take. There were too many things that were sliding on his watch, too many cases that didn't make it up the line to Captain Gates. Trouble is, I made the mistake of confronting him. I should have gone straight to Gates. Donovan denied everything, of course, but well, you know what happened from there. He must have had my habits pretty well tied down for that giant Russian of his to know where and when to find me. But if he was as dirty as I think he was, he would have had the resources to do that."

"Do you have notes or files on what you suspected about Donovan?" Kate asked.

"Donovan must have tried to take care of that, too," Sweet told her. "My apartment was broken into around the same time that Russian hulk came after me. There were copies of my notes there, but I have a backup on a USB drive in a safety deposit box. I have one in the cloud too."

"It might be best to hold off on turning those over to Captain Gates until we know just how deep all of this goes," Kate told him, "You could be putting her and anyone she assigns to Donovan's case in jeopardy. But I could use copies for the Anti-Corruption Commission. We can pursue this under the radar."

"You've got them," Sweet promised, "but how about protection for me? That big Russian might not be the only one Donovan or his buddies might send after me."

"I'll take care of it," Kate assured him.

"Kate, it seems like the more you dig through the dirt, the more layers of muck you find," Castle observed when they'd finished their interview with Sweet.

"That's true, Castle, but most of the cops out there are still great, like the ones who came from the bar to help us. How did the round of drinks, go, by the way?"

"It was expensive," Castle admitted. "I think the patrons who usually drink domestic made the leap to imported when I was footing the bill. Still, they are a great bunch of guys, almost as great as the ones who patronize the Old Haunt. And I can tell you, none of them wanted to see anyone going after Sweet." Castle looked at his watch. "It's almost time for dinner and Mother and Alexis are both going to be out tonight. Would you like to go somewhere to celebrate your latest victory?"

A mischievous glint appeared in Kate's eyes as she pushed her hair behind her ear. "I'm in the mood for shashlik."

"You know as a foodie I'm pretty wide-ranging, but you'll have to fill me in on that one," Castle said."

Kate ran a finger teasingly over his lips. "Simple, Castle. I could do with skewering some Russian meat. Shashlik is Russian shish kabob."

A/N Guest: As an alumna of Stuyvesant's sister school, Bronx Science, which was the only one of the three technical schools that would take girls at the time, I am well aware of the ranking problem. It threw a wrench into my plans. However, senior year was when we had the most advanced classes, more difficult than what I encountered at college. It was also the most fun. Despite the easier ride I would have had spending my senior year elsewhere, I would not have wanted to be anywhere else. The discipline I learned has served me throughout my life. A lot of my classmates became lawyers, and I think with that kind of a boot camp, if Kate had stuck with the law, she would have done well. However, with Kate's personality, if I had been writing her canon history, I would have sent her to Hunter, not Stuyvesant. I think it would have been a more realistic fit.


	25. Chapter 25

Emergence

Chapter 25

"Things have not been going well with you, Marcus," Alexander Spassky pointed out, the hardness of his eyes belying the mildness of his statement. "We lost one of our best in Sasha Borisov, and if he betrays us, we stand to lose a lot more. Then there is the problem of Detective Sweet; I believe we can assume there will be no silence from him."

"You have nothing to worry about with Sweet," Donovan assured him. "What he suspected, only involved me."

"Ah, but with the stubbornness of both Katherine Beckett and Marshall Lannister, the trail to you would eventually lead them to us. Normally, I would order that you be terminated - with extreme prejudice - but that would only serve to raise more suspicions. You must continue as if clean as fresh fallen snow. Cease any contact with us. Discontinue any activities that might be linked to us. And of course, you will receive no more money. I hope that you have saved and invested well Marcus because you are on your own, and if there are signs that you have revealed anything, anything at all, your story will come to an abrupt ending. Do you take my meaning?"

Desperately needing a trip to the men's room, Donovan could do nothing but nod.

* * *

"I know you've got Ryan and Esposito watching Sweet's back, but that's a lot for the two of them to cover. Are you planning to stash him somewhere? Can you trust the regular N.Y.P.D. safe houses?" Castle asked as he and Kate pored over the information from Sweet's files, at a table in the loft.

"I've been thinking that the Anti-Crime Commission needs at least one safe house of its own," Kate replied. "Long's on board with the idea. We've got the funding. Weldon is making sure of that. We haven't found the appropriate place yet. The vacancy rate in the city isn't exactly high, and we'd have to find somewhere no one would know about, or at least think about."

"I have an idea." Castle said.

"You're not thinking of keeping him here, are you?" Kate questioned. "And your place in the Hamptons is way too far from the city."

"Definitely not here," Castle agreed. "I wouldn't want that kind of danger anywhere near Alexis or Mother - or one of us either. And you're right about the Hamptons. I was thinking of the one place no one would look. The current tenant won't be using it again for quite a while, if ever."

"Castle, what are you talking about?" Kate demanded.

"I'm talking about Sasha Borisov's place. It's been thoroughly scrubbed, but if anyone notices police presence now, they won't think anything about it. The man's a criminal. The Russian mob won't go near it. They won't want the association. And the Oceana is very nice digs. Besides if we visit Sweet there, I can get more halvah at the Samovar."

"I knew your stomach would be entering into the discussion at some point," Kate laughed. "But is a brilliant idea, Castle. We just have to set it up without anyone knowing about it." Castle grinned at her. "Let me guess," Kate ventured, you know a guy."

"Actually, a woman," Castle corrected her, "my real estate agent. I've put her onto several clients with big bucks over the years, and she owes me. And there's no one I know who can guard a listing better. She also likes crime stories with a twist. She'll love this."

* * *

Mindy Kaplan checked her hair. She was old enough to be Richard Castle's mother, but she still liked to look her best around the writer. She was excited about the meeting she'd be having with him and his muse Kate Beckett. Castle had told her that it was totally confidential, which only further served to peak her curiosity. But she knew how to keep a secret. She had the fat commissions to prove it. No multiple listings splits. She used her own contacts to find her best buyers. She assumed that whatever Castle had on his mind would be similar, even if it would be for a lease rather than an outright purchase. It was still bound to be good money.

Castle and Kate Beckett entered her office right on time, and she waved them toward the comfortably upholstered chairs in front of her desk. Castle quickly presented the situation. "Hmm, the Oceana, I've never placed anyone there," Mindy considered. "That community is quite insular, as I'm sure you know. But I do love opening new territory, Richard, and having the Anti-Corruption Commission as a client is rather thrilling. I should be able to set something up rather quickly. I'll let you know when I have it in place."

Castle extended his arm and encased Kaplan's crepey skinned hand in both his own. "Mindy, always a pleasure.

The real estate agent blushed, as Castle and Beckett left her office.

"Castle, that woman has a crush on you," Kate pointed out, as she and Castle climbed into his Mercedes.

"Kate, I cannot help it if I'm attractive to more mature women," Castle replied. "They are some of my most faithful readers. But I can assure you, there is not and never has been anything between Mindy and me besides business and an occasionally shared order of potato salad. She prefers the kind with the mustard."

"Uh huh. She obviously likes things spicy."

"I've got all the spice I need right here in the car with me," Castle declared. "Once we've finished getting Sweet situated, what are you going to do about Donovan? You can't just let him stay as second in command in IA, especially not with everything you have from Sweet."

"You're right, Castle," Kate agreed, "and he has to know something is coming. I'm surprised he hasn't just disappeared or been disappeared already. But I wouldn't make book on him staying around much longer, in the N.Y.P.D., or anywhere we can reach him. As soon I can, I'm going to bring him in, quietly, before there's another Borisov to quiet him for good."

* * *

Victoria Gates instructed Donovan to close the door to her office. "What the hell is wrong with you, Marcus?" she demanded. "Your reports are incomplete or just plain shoddy. When you're here, you're acting like a scared rabbit, and you don't seem to be here minute longer than necessary. Problems on the home front, or is this just a case of IA burnout? I know most cops are less than comfortable working for this department. Did you want to put in for a transfer? You're no good to me the way you are."

Donovan shook his head. "No transfer. I'm fine."

"No, you're not," Gates insisted. "If you want to stay, you'd better get yourself straight, and if you can't do that, I'm inclined to put you on suspension until you get the help you need."

"Things have been a bit rocky for me. Maybe I could use some time off to get myself together," Donovan suggested, thinking that he could use the opportunity to get enough of his funds together to engineer an escape from both the N.Y.P.D. and Spassky.

"Okay then." Gates agreed. "Consider yourself on vacation, from this moment. And I don't want to see you back here until your performance can improve significantly."

"Yes, sir." Donovan nodded and backed toward the door.


	26. Chapter 26

Emergence

Chapter 26

Ryan quietly approached Kate's desk. "Beckett, we just got an alert on Donovan's financials. He liquidated a bunch of stock."

"He must be getting ready to make a move," Kate said. "Get Espo over here, and tell him to smile."

To the rest of the bullpen, it looked as if Beckett, Ryan, Esposito, and Castle were sharing a private joke.

"Look, guys," Kate said. "Sweet should be safe at the Oceana. We need to bring Donovan in now. The word is he's on vacation, so he won't be on the job. We'll need to track him down. Castle and I will go to his apartment. You guys put a watch on any of the transportation out of the city and monitor his transactions. The minute he has a charge or a debit anywhere, get on him. We should be able to trap him between us."

"Then what?" Esposito questioned. "We bring him in here to interrogate him? That could tip off any cronies he might still have here, and maybe the Russians."

"You're right," Kate acknowledged. "We take him to the offices of the Anti-Crime Commission. There's recording apparatus there. When he spills what he knows, we'll have it."

"What if we can't get him to spill?" Ryan queried.

"He'll spill all right," Kate assured him. "If he's getting ready to run, it's because he knows he's already in the crosshairs. If he doesn't play ball with us, he's just another loose end for the Russians to tie up. And they'll tie it up tight."

* * *

Donovan sauntered back to his apartment with a bag of take-out Chinese food. He was going to miss New York. Within a few blocks walk of his apartment, he could get at least ten different kinds of food and a hundred different kinds of coffee. Most of it was good, and some of it was great. He'd be leaving all that behind. There was much to be said of the sunshine of a private island. One of the perks of dealing with the criminal element was that he'd become aware of a few hideaways where no questions were asked except about your ability to pay. The city had more than its share of pleasures and up to very recently, had always been more than up to indulging his special needs. But that had clearly come to an end. As soon as he'd had his last potsticker, he'd finish packing. Then it would be a flight from a private airport, and he'd be free of Russia, Gates, and the whole fucking mess.

Kate was waiting with Castle at the door of Donovan's apartment. "Lieutenant Donovan, we have to talk."

Donovan pushed past her. "Sorry Detective, I'm on vacation."

"I think you'll find you've had a change of destination," Castle said.

Donovan lunged toward the stairwell, reaching for his gun. Esposito emerged, his gun pointed squarely at the dirty cop. "Detective Beckett said she wanted to talk." Ryan came up close behind Esposito, his gun also drawn.

"We have a lot to discuss, Donovan," Kate said, her weapon in her hand, as well.

Ryan strode up and took Donovan's gun.

"Let's go!" Kate commanded.

* * *

The climate control system at the offices of the Anti-Crime Commission kept the rooms at a steady sixty-eight degrees, but Donovan was sweating - a lot. Kate sat with copies of Sweet's notes in front of her and went line by line, carefully questioning Donovan about every detail. Slowly he began to relax. There was nothing really big on her list, nothing meriting much more than a reprimand. He didn't have to tell her a damned thing. He was wondering why she just hadn't turned what she had over to Gates. He could have resigned and vanished from New York forever. The black mark on his record would be irrelevant where he was going. He leaned back in a leather chair, clearly more designed for a participant in a meeting than an interrogation, a smirk beginning to twist his lips. It vanished as Beckett pulled a photograph from beneath a stack of papers and slid it across the table for him to see.

"I assume that you recognize your meeting with Sasha Borisov, Lieutenant Donovan. Do you make a habit of hanging out in parking garages with cop killers?"

Donovan's throat constricted, strangling his words. "I want my union rep and a lawyer," he choked out, the glow of a renewed moist sheen on his bald pate."

"I doubt your union rep would help much. The union is not too fond of cops whose actions cover the rest of us in shit. Maybe a lawyer can make me cut you loose. But then what? I doubt that will help you if Borisov's employers come after you," Kate pointed out, the corners of her mouth tweaking upward as satisfaction lent a greenish tinge to the hazel of her eyes. "And they will come after you. You know that, don't you Donovan? Whatever the city and the state of New York can do to you, your old pals can do much worse. Your only prayer for anything resembling a normal lifespan is to make a deal with us - and it better be a good one. I want to know about every connection the Russian mob has to the N.Y.P.D., every dirty cop, and who's in charge of the operation."

"I don't know all of that!" Donovan protested.

"Well you'd better hope you know enough to save your ass," Kate informed him. "Still want your rep and your lawyer?"

Donovan used the backs of his hands to try to rub the burn of salt from his eyes. "No. Keep the Russians away from me, and I'll tell you what I know."

* * *

Alexander Spassky did not like the report he'd received at all. Donovan had been sloppy, and his activities had not gone unnoticed. The man had obviously been planning to flee the country. Spassky's people had been set to take Donovan out at an isolated airstrip before he ever boarded his plane, but Donovan hadn't shown up. Neither was he at his apartment. It had become clear that he'd been taken in. It was just a matter of time before he talked. The man had no strength. For years that had made him useful, but now the liability was huge. Worse, his people had been unable to determine where Donovan was being held. None of the organization's contacts within the N.Y.P.D. knew. By this time, it didn't matter. The damage would have been done. There was nothing to do but get out. Given time, he had the resources to set up operations elsewhere. If the soldiers of the lower echelons were seized, it was unfortunate, but they were all expendable. As many funds as possible were being transferred to his accounts in Cyprus. A helicopter was waiting to take him to a ship in international waters. He could direct the clean-up from there until he'd chosen a new base of operations. Wherever there was greed, there would be opportunities for lucrative endeavors, and in much of the world, greed was worshiped as a god. He sighed, fingering the material of his suit. He would miss his New York tailor; the best one he'd ever had. He'd also miss the New York Philharmonic. But all that was the was the price of doing business. The door of his office opened before he could reach it. He instantly recognized the woman holding the gun. It was Detective Kate Beckett.


	27. Chapter 27

Emergence

Chapter 27

"What's going to happen with Spassky?" Castle asked as he and Kate loaded the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher.

Since that's largely an organized crime matter it's going to be handled by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District," Kate explained. "Liaison with them is Marshall Lannister's gig, but he and his wife have a baby due soon. He'll be taking some time off, and I'll be picking up the slack."

"Together with cleaning out the dirt that's still under the rugs in the N.Y.P.D., that's not going to give you much time to pursue homicide investigations," Castle noted.

"Victoria Gates will be doing some of the sweeping up, Castle. She's as clean as they come, except for the stick up her ass. And Sweet will be working with her. But you're right," Kate agreed. "My time at the murder board may be very limited. That may cut into our time together, and how much research you can do for your books. I'm sorry about that."

"Kate, I've already done enough research for fifty books. I'm not worried about that. I'll probably get more of them written if I spend less time at the precinct, much as the procrastination appeals to me. I just want to see you as much as possible here. And speaking of that, isn't it time you gave up your apartment?" Castle queried. "You spend almost all your time here anyway, and the upkeep can't be cheap. You can bring whatever you want that you haven't already, here, and I have access to lots of storage in the basement. You'll be able to get at your things whenever you need to."

Kate chewed her lip. "But Castle what if we break up? If someone is subleasing my apartment, I can't just kick them out."

Castle turned Kate to face him. "Kate, I love you. I thought, I hoped; I mean, after everything we've been through together, that you…."

"That I love you too," Kate finished. "I do, Castle." She quickly pressed her lips to his. "But let's face it. We both have lousy track records. You have your ex-wives and Kyra, and I have Sorenson, Demming, Josh, and some really crazy ones that you don't know about. A lot of our relationship has been built on working together, literally being in the line of fire together. What's going to happen when that changes?"

Castle drew her against him. "Oh Kate, I didn't fall in love with you because we were working together, we were working together because I fell in love with you. I thought you realized that by now. And it isn't like it was with Meredith or Gina. It's not a matter of duty or convenience. I want to be with you whenever and wherever I can. So where do you see things going from here?"

"Castle, I don't know. I want to be with you too, and I do love you," Kate professed. "It's just that I never had a relationship where I didn't have a foot out the door. I'm not sure how to deal with one. For now, I at least need a toe out, like keeping my apartment. Can you be patient with that for a while?"

Castle swallowed. "Whatever time you need." He forced a smile. "So, what is it this morning? Precinct or commission?"

"As long as Marshall can still handle the things with the Attorney's office, definitely the precinct."

Castle drew a breath. "Good."

* * *

Jim Beckett unlocked the door to his law office. He had expected it to be open. His paralegal, Marsha, was taking law courses and liked to get her office work done early in the morning, and in the evening. He could tell she wasn't there, not only by the locked door but by the absence of the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. The taste of the beverage had improved somewhat of late after Katie had given him some of Castle's special blend. He had been surprised. It was unlike her to communicate much about any of her boyfriends. He wasn't sure whether to be pleased or disturbed. The age difference between them was troubling, as were Castle's two ex-wives. On the other hand, never in her long string of boyfriends, even as a teenager, could he remember seeing Katie so happy. She might have found a match at last, but time would tell. It always did. She also appeared to have found her niche on the Anti-Crime Commission. After solving Johanna's murder, he had expected his daughter to be rudderless, but she appeared to have found a new one. It was possible that having Castle at her side had played a part in that.

He checked his desk. Usually, Marsha left her finished work in his in the basket. There was nothing there. That was unsettling, especially since he was due in court that afternoon and had hoped to go over what Marsha had done, beforehand. He consulted the class schedule that was taped below her computer screen. She didn't have a class for hours. If she were ill, she would have called. He wondered if there had been an accident of some kind. He hadn't heard about one on the radio on his drive to the office, but most accidents weren't important enough to make the news unless they seriously tied up traffic. He picked up the phone to call her, but all he got was the cheery greeting inviting him to record a message. He did, inquiring if she was all right, made himself a cup of coffee, black, and settled himself at his desk to prepare for his appearance at Judge Stimpson's bench.

* * *

"Got a fresh one," Ryan called across the bullpen. "Fourteenth Street Union Square Subway Station."

"Someone fall on the tracks?" Castle asked

"Nope," Ryan answered "Body in a stall in the ladies' room."

"Drug overdose?" Castle wondered.

"We'll know when Lanie tells us, Castle," Kate said. "Let's go."

* * *

Lanie looked up from the body. "Victim is Marsha Anders. She still had her purse. Cash and credit cards were gone, if she had any, but she still had her metro card and student ID from CUNY Law School."

"Marsha Anders," Kate repeated. "I've met her. She's my Dad's paralegal. He told me she was going to law school. What was the cause of death?"

"Looks like asphyxiation. There are ligature marks on the neck as if someone came up behind her and surprised her. There are marks on her fingers too, like she tried to claw at whatever was used to strangle her. There's also petechial hemorrhaging, typical of asphyxiation. I'll know more when I do the autopsy, but Kate, this was definitely not an accident. Someone wanted this woman dead."

"Yo!" Esposito called from the doorway of the restroom. "I talked to the woman who found the body. Her name is Graciela Hernandez. She looked underneath the door of the stall to see if it was empty and saw the victim's legs on the floor. Then she went to find a transit cop. Took her a while. They're spread pretty thin. I don't think she knows anything. Ryan's getting the statement from the cop, but so far I don't think we have anything useful."

"And there are no cameras in here," Kate added. "Just on the platform."

"They're busted, anyway," Esposito said. "The station manager told me there's been a work order in to fix them for days."

"Convenient," Castle commented. "Too convenient?"

Kate nodded slowly. "Could be. Espo, go back to the station manager and find out just who knew the cameras were broken. When Lanie nails down the time of death, start checking for alibis."

"You really think it was a subway worker, Kate?" Castle queried. "It would be a better story if it had something to do with a legal case."

"It would make more sense, too," Kate agreed. "Why would a subway worker want to kill a paralegal and law student? Even if she had money, it wouldn't have been much. Her credit cards wouldn't have gone far, either."

"There would have been much more upscale targets," Castle agreed. "There's a lot of traffic through this station."

"We need to talk to my father," Kate decided.


	28. Chapter 28

Emergence

Chapter 28

"Marsha is dead?" Jim Beckett repeated. He scrubbed a hand over his face. "I thought something might be wrong when she didn't show up, and I couldn't reach her, but I never thought she might be dead. What happened?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out, Dad," Kate replied softly. "Right now, we know she was strangled. If it's any comfort, Lanie says it didn't take long for Marsha to die. Do you know of anyone who might have had a reason to kill her?"

Jim shook his head. "Marsha was on her own and kept pretty much to herself. She didn't have any family. She came out of the foster care system. If she had a boyfriend, I never heard anything about him. No one came to the office. Marsha was all about work and school."

"What about the work?" Kate questioned. "Was she working on anything that could have driven someone to want her out of the way? If she was, you could be in danger too, Dad."

"If Marsha came up with something, I don't know what it was. We were working on behalf of a group of parents all from one area of the city, whose kids are having respiratory problems. The problem is, the ailments were all different. There was an increased incidence of respiratory infections like colds, asthma, bronchitis, even pneumonia. The health department can't track them like infectious diseases. Without some kind of unifying factor, we couldn't figure out a target for litigation. Marsha was doing some research to try to figure out how the cases tie together - if they do. She thinks - thought - of herself as kind of an Erin Brockovich."

"Maybe she was," Kate considered. "She could have uncovered something that would have cost someone big in court. Any idea who she had in her sights?"

"That information might have been in what she should have turned in this morning," Jim related. "But if it was, it never made it to my desk. I can go through her files and see if there's anything I can share with you. You know if there's anything specific to any of my clients, it falls under attorney-client privilege. But I can give you anything I find that's general background. If need be, I can try to obtain permission from my clients for more."

"I appreciate it Dad," Kate told him.

"I'm surprised Castle isn't with you, Katie," Jim said. "Isn't he trailing around after you anymore?"

"He's my partner not my shadow, Dad, and he is usually with me. But he has a conference at Alexis' school right now, and he never lets those go."

Jim nodded thoughtfully. "And he shouldn't. Your mother and I used to juggle our schedules like crazy to keep things covered for you at school."

"Well Rick's on his own with that," Kate replied. "Alexis' mother is off in California somewhere, I think. Martha said something about an undemanding recurring role in a sitcom. It didn't sound like she holds her former daughter-in-law's acting skills in high esteem. From what Alexis has told me and what I've observed, it's pretty much always been her and Rick, with Meredith blowing into town occasionally wanting to take her on some grand shopping spree, no doubt paid for by alimony from Rick."

"Sounds like you don't think much of the ex," Jim noted.

"I know that if I ever had a child, I wouldn't just dump everything on my husband," Kate declared.

"And where did the idea of a husband come from, Katie?" Jim asked. "I can't recall you ever bringing up marriage before. Are you and Rick that serious?"

Kate shrugged. "I wasn't thinking about it, Dad, but Castle suggested that I might give up my apartment since we pretty much live together anyway, and that brought up some issues. If I'm going to let go of something that big and that personal to me, I have to have a really solid idea of where things are headed."

Jim took his daughter's hands. "Katie, I've learned the hard way that when you love someone the way I loved your mother - the way I still love her - every moment is precious. I doubt Marsha thought she was risking her life, but the end can come at any time. If anything, that's even more true for you. Do you love Rick? Does he love you?"

"Dad, I'm pretty sure the answer to both questions is yes. I'm just not sure how to take the next step," Kate confided.

"If I were you, I wouldn't take too long to figure it out," Jim advised.

* * *

Castle was grateful that at least he was past the stage where a conference at Alexis' school involved sitting in a tiny chair he was afraid would collapse beneath him. The one in her guidance counselor's office was full sized and well padded, but in a flashback to his own school days, he was no less intimidated. He could feel his palms beginning to sweat. He leaned forward, rubbing them against the fabric of his trousers. "Is Alexis having an academic problem, Mrs. Mardsden?"

"No Mr. Castle, she isn't," the counselor assured him. "But we have been seeing some high levels of anxiety from her, as with some of our other students, about achieving a sufficiently impressive academic and extra-curricular record. She has appeared to relax slightly, recently, which if anything has improved her performance. However, the anxiety is still there. Which brings me to what I wanted to discuss with you. We're starting a program in cooperation with Hudson University. Now I know that's not one of Alexis' target schools. She's been looking more toward Stanford or Oxford. But they are offering some of our students a preview of the college experience. It would involve living in the dorms while pursuing college-level courses, similar to A.P. courses, but in a genuine college atmosphere. Alexis is in several A.P. programs. She could continue or expand those courses at Hudson. I believe it would build her confidence."

The lines deepened on Castle's face. "She was in a summer program like that at Princeton. Her highest anxiety from that seemed to be continuing a relationship with a boy who attended with her. I would think another stretch in a co-ed dormitory would be a distraction at best and something more serious at worst."

"I'm aware of the Princeton Program, Mr. Castle. While it was on a college campus, it was high school level, and I believe your daughter has matured since then. At Hudson, Alexis would be pursuing a graduate level curriculum. And if it eases your mind, at Hudson, she'd be in a girl's dorm. With the recent occurrences on college campuses, they take the protection of students, especially minor students, very seriously. There would also be a support system in place for her. I truly think you should consider it. Not only would it look extremely good to the admissions office at any University, but it would also aid in Alexis' personal development. You have a couple of weeks to think it over before Alexis would have to apply. I can provide you with materials to study, and there are more online."

"Fine, Mrs. Marsden," Castle agreed. "Assuming Alexis wants to enroll in the program, I will give it serious consideration."

Marsden stood and extended her hand for Rick to shake. "That's all I'm asking, Mr. Castle."


	29. Chapter 29

Emergence

Chapter 29

"It was like you thought, Beckett," Esposito reported. "No one knew about the subway cameras being out who would have had a motive to kill Marsha Anders. None of them even knew her."

"It could be that one of them knew someone who knew her, or knew of her," Kate speculated. "Check the financials. See if any of them got a sudden infusion of cash. If what I suspect from what my father told me about Marsha is true, there may be someone out there with deep pockets who was afraid Marsha would expose them."

Castle wandered out of the elevator but bypassed Beckett's desk heading for the break room. "What's with writer boy?" Esposito asked.

"He was going to have a talk with Alexis after I left this morning. It might not have gone the way he wanted it to," Kate explained. "I have some stuff I want him to help me look into. You and Ryan get on those financials."

"As you wish," Esposito responded.

Castle came back to Kate, holding two mugs. He handed one to her and took a deep swallow from his own. "Your talk with Alexis didn't go well?" she surmised.

"Depends on your definition of going well. She wants to go to the Hudson program. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It's good according to the sage Mrs. Marsden. But it would be the second summer in a row that she'd be away. I'm not sure I like that. It will give her enough credits to graduate from high school early, and then she'll be off to college for real. I feel like I'm losing my little girl, Kate."

"Castle, little girls grow up. It's inevitable. But the bond you have with Alexis is strong. And she is only five four. She will always be your little girl."

Rick laughed in spite of himself. "I don't really think her height is relevant, especially since she seems to be becoming as fond of high heels as you are. But you do have a point. She had already checked the commute time to Hudson, for when she wanted to make a trip back to the loft. That could just be a matter of not being crazy about eating college food service or having to pay to do her laundry, but I think she liked the fact that it's a straight shot on an express train if she doesn't want to grab a cab."

"So, if she's accepted, she'll be gone for the whole summer?" Kate queried.

"She'll be accepted," Castle declared. "Mrs. Marsden pretty much guaranteed it. Alexis can come home on weekends if she wants to but she'll have a room in the dorm through June, July, and August. I'm going to miss her."

Kate reached up to caress his cheek. "I know you will, Babe."

Castle kissed the palm of Kate's hand then squared his shoulders. "Distract me. What's happening with Marsha Anders murder?"

"Not much so far. I have the boys working on the theory that someone bribed a transit authority worker. I'm expecting to hear from my Dad about what's in Marsha Anders' files. I'm hoping we can pick up a lead there. In the meantime, what might help," Kate suggested, "is some research on what would cause the kids' respiratory problems that Marsha was investigating. If Marsha found something, you can. You're better and faster at research than anyone I've ever known."

"That particular talent seeped into my pores during my long hours spent in the refuge of the New York Public Library," Castle acknowledged. "Losing myself in a research project is definitely preferable to sitting around obsessing about Alexis."

* * *

"Kate," Castle said, after taking a drag from his third cup of coffee, "the neighborhood where those kids live was flooded a few years back. The sewers backed up."

"You think the flooding caused the kids to get sick, Castle?" Kate inquired.

"Not directly," Castle replied. "There were no diseases directly attributed to the flooding at the time. Nothing like the flesh-eating bacteria that have been seen after hurricanes. But there was a lot of property damage, a lot of soaked wood, wet ground, fertilized by waste. There was an explosion in the growth of all kinds of obnoxious flora and fauna. There would have been a lot of chemical pesticides employed to control it."

"And you're thinking that someone used something that made the kids sick?" Kate followed.

"Given the range of illnesses, maybe more than one something," Castle theorized. "Anyway, I've got a list of companies that were involved in the remediation."

"And if we check on their backgrounds, maybe one will pop that might have been cutting corners," Kate continued.

Castle grinned at her. "Just what I was thinking. Want to split the list?"

"You're on," Kate grinned back, as her cell phone played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." "That's my Dad." Kate listened intently for a minute. "Castle," she relayed. "I think you're onto something. My Dad said that Marsha had a whole file on pesticides and their effects on children. It was on a separate USB drive as if it were a backup, so he didn't find it until he went through her desk."

Castle gave Kate two thumbs up. "Obviously superior detection skills run in your family."

* * *

Kate and Rick dragged into the loft with stiff shoulders and tired eyes. "Darlings," Martha greeted them, glints of light flashing off the chunky necklace that topped her gold lame blouse. "I have the most exciting news. I'm am going to be starring as Mama Rose in Gypsy at the Dumont and then going on tour with it, this summer. Isn't that marvelous? Back on the stage in a premier role!"

"I know that playing an overbearing mother…," Castle began.

"Watch it, kid!" Martha interjected.

"I was going to say that I know that playing an overbearing mother will be a stretch, but I'm sure that you will handle it stupendously," Castle went on. "I'm happy for you, Mother."

"So am I, Martha," Kate added.

"We should celebrate!" Castle proclaimed. "Is Alexis here? We could all go to Le Cirque."

"Upstairs," Martha replied. "She's checking out campus fashion for this summer. New styles are just coming into the stores, and she wants to get a jump on her shopping."

Castle's appetite took a sudden nosedive, but he forced his smile to remain on his lips. "Great! Kate and I can go change and then I can ask Alexis if she wants to join us."

"It's coming home to you, isn't it, Babe, that Alexis really will be gone for the summer?" Kate asked as Castle stood staring into his closet,

"It is," Castle confessed. "But I am genuinely happy for Mother. She's been pining for a long time over her loss of ingenue and lead roles. This is a part she can really throw herself into and shine. So, it will be just the two of us together here this summer." Rick turned to Kate, his smile returning. "It will be just the two of us here together this summer!"

"Yes, it will," Kate confirmed. "Unless Alexis camps out a lot to do her laundry."

The corners of Castle's eyes crinkled. "I will make sure that she has the means for a truly extravagant shopping spree. With any luck, she shouldn't have to do laundry very often at all."


	30. Chapter 30

Emergence

Chapter 30

Ryan was at the murder board when Kate and Rick entered the bullpen. "Beckett!" he called. "We found your transit worker with sudden riches." He pointed to a picture of a man with thinning hair and a face where worry had carved deep grooves. "Kyle Redboom. Until recently - very recently - living paycheck to paycheck, credit cards almost maxed out. Then suddenly credit cards paid off and checking account looking healthy. As far as we could find, no inheritance, no lottery winnings, no windfalls in Atlantic City or Vegas. The money just appeared. Cash, no record of a transfer."

"We need to talk to him."

"Unis are bringing him in now," Ryan reported.

* * *

Kyle Redboom squirmed in his chair, one knee moving up and down and fingers tapping on the table. Whenever he met Kate's eyes, his movement grew more intense. "Mr. Redboom, you were aware that the cameras in the Union Square Station were not functioning," Kate stated.

"Yes," Kyle agreed, pushing back sparse, damp strands back from his forehead. "But I didn't kill that woman. I have an alibi!"

"We know you do, Mr. Redboom," Kate agreed. "But it is clear that you passed the information about the video on, and that you were well paid for it. What I need to know, is who you passed that information to."

"I didn't do anything wrong," Kyle protested. "It was a city official. I mean he had a right to know. Muckety mucks like that should be taking care of what's wrong in this city."

"With you there, Buddy," Castle put in. "And taking care of what's wrong in this city is just what Detective Beckett is trying to do. That's why she needs the name of your highly placed pal."

"Am I in trouble too?" Kyle questioned.

"Not if you tell me what I need to know," Kate promised. "Who gave you the money?"

Kyle's fingernails dug into his palms. "Mark Hamburger."

Castle used his head to motion Kate out of the room. "Mark Hamburger oversaw the issuance of permits for the clean-up of the neighborhood where those kids got sick," he told her as they watched a nervous Kyle Redboom through the one-way mirror.

Kate nodded. "It's all coming together, Castle. Hamburger must have found what Marsha Anders was investigating and decided that she was coming too close. Then he took her out or arranged to have someone do it for him. This all may be converging with my work on the Anti-Corruption Commission. If Hamburger was taking bribes to give permits to companies who used chemicals in a way that endangered those children, then graft led to murder. But we have a long way to go to prove that."

"As I told our skittish Mr. Redboom," Castle said, "you are trying to take care of what's wrong in this city, in more ways than one."

"And the next way is getting some deep background on Mark Hamburger," Kate added.

"Ah," Castle nodded, "back to the hunched shoulders and bleary eyes."

Kate bumped her hip against Rick's. "We can work out the kinks later."

"I'm going to hold you to that," Castle assured her.

* * *

"Fortunately for us," Castle announced, "Mark Hamburger seems to have enjoyed shameless self-promotion. He made sure that every step he made up the professional or social ladder was extensively chronicled. Unfortunately for him, his lust for the spotlight backfired. His reverses were also noted with some glee by the gossip columns, blogs, and by social media. He was a rising star. Like you, he attended a special high school. He went on to Vassar where he met his wife, who hails from an old monied family. Fancy, expensive wedding, even more expensive divorce. Then his ex's family appears to have seen to it that his career stalled out. His steady rise in city government came to a grinding halt, and he was stuck supervising permits. He's been stuck there ever since. If he loses that position; he loses everything."

"People have murdered for far less," Kate asserted. "With what Redboom told us, and what we have on Hamburger's history, if we hit a judge on a good day, we should be able to get a warrant for Hamburger's financials. The figures should finish telling the tale."

"I've got just the judge," Castle declared. "Judge Bean. He's part of Markway's foursome. They went down to South Carolina for a tournament last weekend. Bean scored a hole in one. Should be feeling pretty good about himself right now."

"What's his first name, Castle?" Kate queried. "Don't tell me he was named after the infamous Judge Roy Bean."

"Alright, I won't tell you," Castle quipped. "No, actually it's worse. His given name is Lima. Apparently, his parents met in Peru. It was an unfortunate match for his surname. He just uses the initial. He goes by L. Leonard Bean."

"L.L. Bean." Kate rolled her eyes. "I guess a catalog is better than a legume."

"If you want the warrant," Castle decided, "I'd better call him Leo."

* * *

"Judge Bean was pretty nice, giving us that warrant," Kate considered as she and Castle returned to the loft for the evening. "Especially since we caught him on his way to his car. We should be able to get Hamburger's financials in the morning. Early afternoon at the latest. We can fill the time tomorrow looking at some of the companies he issued permits to."

"I'm afraid you'll have to fill the time doing that by yourself," Castle said. "I have a meeting at Black Pawn tomorrow morning. They want to resurrect Derrick Storm, and not just in new editions or graphic novels. They want me to write new Derrick Storm books, along with the Nikki Heats."

"How are you going to do that?" Kate asked. "You blew a hole in Storm's brain."

"Uh huh, a messy one," Castle agreed. "but they want me to do the faked his death thing. It's a trope, but it will sell books. And I've been away from Storm long enough, so I'm not bored with him anymore. I've got some new ideas. If we work out an agreement, you won't be the only one with less time for solving murders. Things may be changing for both of us. Our time together in our off hours will be even more scarce." He brushed the hair from her face. "And more precious."

"Is this your obtuse way of asking if I've thought any more about giving up my apartment?" Kate queried.

"It wasn't," Castle replied, "I told you I'd give you all the time you need, and I meant it. But obviously, it's on your mind. Have you made a decision?"

"I'm getting there, Castle. There's so much happening right now. Let's just see how things go - with your work and with mine."

"That's fair," Castle agreed. "And we might as well see how we want things to go with dinner. My nose tells me that Alexis put the lasagna in the oven. All we'll need is a salad. Are you in the mood for tearing lettuce or would you rather put your knife skills to use?"

"How about if I make the dressing?" Kate proposed.

"Fine." Castle agreed, "but if you are going to be choosing how the succulent edibles are enhanced, make it with something spicy."

Kate seized a handful of his well-rounded butt. "Are you talking about dinner or what comes later?"

Castle drew her against him and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Yes."


	31. Chapter 31

Emergence

Chapter 31

Castle didn't want to get out of bed. The night before, Kate had been more than the promised spicy, and the hours of darkness had passed much too quickly. He would have loved to stay in the disheveled bedclothes, with Kate pressed against his body. Unfortunately, neither of them could linger. Kate was due at the precinct before he was due at Black Pawn. The least he could do to help her on her way would be to get up and get the coffee started. He groaned, half with stiff muscles and half with the sweet remembrance of the night before, as he dragged himself upright on the edge of the bed. Still in the haze of slumber, Kate reached for him. He squeezed her hand before pulling on his robe and leaving the room.

The kitchen showed signs of earlier occupancy. He recalled that Alexis had practice for an academic quiz bowl, before her first class. He could tell by the lone cereal bowl and spoon that she had unloaded the dishwasher and fixed her own quick breakfast before departing. In some ways, a college schedule would be easier for her. Dining halls would be open in time to feed students before class, and there would be more gaps in her schedule for extra-curricular activities. He was grateful for that, but even if Alexis' upcoming months at Hudson University would give him more freedom to enjoy what time he had with Kate, it didn't mean he'd miss his daughter any less. He sighed. the schedule would be changing, not just for Alexis, but for him and Kate as well, whether he liked it or not. It would be best to see as much of an upside as he could. He heard the faint sound of the shower being turned on. It was just as well Kate was up. He had to grind a new batch of coffee beans, and the sound of the grinder would have been an unwelcome jolt from any lingering dream.

* * *

As soon as Kate left the stimulating flow of hot water, she could detect the aroma of Castle's fresh brew. She toweled off as quickly as she could, blow-dried her hair, and pulled on her clothes. Castle had a foam heart topped mug and a small goblet of orange juice waiting for her, and was stirring eggs and sautéed mushrooms in a skillet. She took a healthy sip of her coffee before downing her juice. "Castle, what time is your meeting at Black Pawn?"

"Ten thirty. The only things I've known that would make Gina drag herself out of bed before nine were a fire alarm and an early sale at the Helmholtz boutique. Come to think of it; I'm not sure about the fire alarm. I can get some writing in and organize my notes on Storm's new adventures before I leave. You'll let me know if anything pops at the precinct?"

"Sure Castle, and let me know how your meeting goes too."

Basking in her interest, Castle felt warmth flow over him that had nothing to do with the heat rising from the stove. A smile rose on his lips. "I will."

* * *

Kate stared impatiently at her computer. Mark Hamburger's financials had yet to materialize. She had paperwork to fill out. There was always paperwork to fill out, but she wanted movement on the case. She glanced at her watch. Castle would be in his meeting at Black Pawn. As much as she knew things had ended between him Gina, she still hated to think of them in the same room together, even if it was strictly business. She idly wondered if he'd ever thought of getting another publisher. But that made no sense, Black Pawn had been good to him, and whether she liked Gina or not, and she didn't, the brittle and most likely bleached blonde was good at her job. That was good for Castle. Since she'd been with Castle, Kate found herself thinking more and more about what would be good for him, and Alexis and Martha too. Without realizing it, she had been drawn into the loving weirdness of the Castle family. It was like a wool shawl around her shoulders, complete with the occasional itchiness of the fibers.

* * *

Paula Haas scowled as she paged through Black Pawn's proposal. "You want Rick to turn out twice as many books in the same amount of time?"

"For which he'd be receiving twice the advance," Gina pointed out.

"An advance won't help if he's hospitalized with exhaustion," Paula retorted.

Gina waved a dismissive hand. "Spare me the drama, Paula. Connelly turns out way more books than that. Patterson's readers see something new every few months, if not more often, and neither one of them is having a health crisis."

"Neither one of them tracks down killers anywhere but on paper, and Patterson uses co-writers." Paula pointed out. "What makes Rick's books so interesting, especially the Nikki Heats, is that they draw on his own experience. Women love to think about him in the streets solving crimes with Kate Beckett. They get off on it."

"Can I say something here?" Castle interjected. "I'm willing to turn out the extra books, but I want an end to the harassment, Gina. I don't need whatever time I have with my family or with Kate, constantly being invaded by nudges from my publisher slash ex-wife. Dammit, you've even called Kate at the precinct looking for me. That was totally unacceptable. Kate has better things to do than answer your calls, and so do I. I'll respond to the requests for revisions from my editor. She's usually right anyway, but that's it. I'll fulfill my obligations, but just leave me the hell alone to do it. Write that into your proposal somewhere, and I'll accept it."

"Rick, that's ridiculous," Gina insisted.

Castle's eyes hardened. "Take it or leave it, Gina. You get my books, and you get them on time, but I live my life without you on my back, and you definitely never bother Kate, my mother or my daughter again, unless you're inviting them for spa days."

"Fine, Rick," Gina ground out. I'll have the necessary provisions added to the paperwork."

Paula grabbed Castle by the arm as they exited the office. "I know Gina can be a pain in the ass, but you've always put up with it before. What brought that on? Was Kate bitching about Gina calling her?"

"Kate hasn't bitched about anything. That was strictly from me. Kate's life is complicated and so is mine. I'm just trying to make everything work. There are only so many minutes in the day, and they don't need to be wasted on the phone with my ex-wife. Is that a problem, Paula?" Castle questioned.

"Rick, you're really serious about Kate, aren't you?" Paula probed. "I've never seen you want to put that much effort into making things work with any of your women. It isn't just Jameson Rook who's finally found his match, is it?"

"No, it isn't," Castle admitted. "But I don't know about Kate. She's with me, but there are still some things hanging out there. I want my relationship with her to work more than I've ever wanted anything in my life. Nothing is going to screw it up if I can help it. Do you understand that?"

Paula regarded the intensity on the face of her longtime client. "I think I do. Okay, Rick. I'll make sure everything is right with your deal with Black Pawn. And good luck," she added. "I mean it, not just as your agent but your friend."

Castle gave her a peck on the cheek. "And I appreciate it."


	32. Chapter 32

Emergence

Chapter 32

"Hey!" Castle called to Kate, as he stepped off the elevator at the precinct.

"Hey yourself," she responded. "How did your meeting go? I thought you were going to call me."

"I was, but I thought I'd just come," Castle replied. "Ooh, that sounded dirtier than I thought. I think I got what I wanted at the meeting. I will be writing the Storm books, but Black Pawn, Gina at least, should be less of an intrusion into our lives."

Kate's eyebrows rose. "Sounds like you'll be working hard."

Castle shrugged. "No harder than you. Did Hamburger's financials come in?"

Kate pointed at her screen. "Five minutes ago. We haven't had time to go through much of anything yet. It will go a lot faster if you can stay for a while."

"I can," Castle agreed. "I already have the next Storm book outlined in my head. It won't take much to put my outline on my computer and start getting it down on the page. I can work on it for a couple of hours tonight. Maybe you can use the time to catch up on your soap; then we can explore our progress together."

"Mm," Kate said, "sounds good. The printouts should be done by now. It's easier to go over hard copy. We can grab Ryan and Esposito and move operations to the conference room."

"Good, Castle agreed. "Where's Montgomery? I haven't seen him for days. He didn't even show up for poker night."

"He's taking some vacation time. He and Evelyn decided to take a trip together, just the two of them. It's part of his anniversary present to her. His mom is staying with the kids. They're driving up through New England, staying at some of the historic B&Bs. One of Roy's ancestors fought at the battle of Concord. He wants to visit the site. I think they plan to spend some time on Cape Cod, too, before the tourist season gets started."

"The tourist season hasn't started yet because it's still cold up there, especially right on the ocean," Castle pointed out.

Kate grinned mischievously. "I'm pretty sure they can keep each other warm, Castle." She pointed to a thick folder. "Grab that file and let's get into Hamburger's dealings."

* * *

Pushing back his chair from the conference table, Castle tapped the sheet of figures he'd been studying. "I think I'm going to start referring to this guy as the Hamburgler, without the mitigation of French fries. Lots of bits and pieces of cash with no apparent origin flowing into his account. Never anything reaching ten thousand, so there wouldn't have been a report to the IRS. These figures are from the time when he was issuing permits to work in the flooded neighborhood. The man made a good haul. If we trace back some of these deposits; the story should be pretty clear. Hamburgler's palm was crossed with silver in exchange for permits. With what we know about what Marsha Anders found, it's likely that to make up the gap in their profits, the contractors used cheaper, more dangerous chemicals for the job. Fast forward, a bunch of sick kids. I wouldn't be surprised if the adults were affected too, but it was probably more obvious with the children. So where do we go from here? Bring him in?"

Kate shook her head. Not yet. "He'll lawyer up and maybe get some of this excluded. We need backup evidence. Let's find the source of the biggest influxes to Hamburger's accounts and ask a few questions."

"We should start with the guys who did the actual work," Castle suggested. "They might have some complaints of their own, and be looking to find a sympathetic ear or two."

"Good idea, Castle," Kate agreed. "Let's get to it and find them."

* * *

Castle rubbed the back of his neck. Tracing down the companies involved with Hamburgler's questionable dealings had taken most of the afternoon. He and Kate had done one interview. Before quitting for the day, Ryan and Esposito had gone out to do a couple as well. Mother and Alexis had been home for dinner, and he and Kate had watched a movie together afterward. Kate had been in a bloodthirsty mood, and they'd both gravitated toward John Woo. Amidst the gore, Kate had drifted off on his shoulder. He carried her to bed and then started the work he'd planned for hours earlier. The words had flowed from his fingers, until one A.M., when the stress of the day caught up with him. It was time to climb in next to Kate, for what was left of the night. At least with Kate in his arms, he could fall asleep quickly, and enjoy waking up, however early the alarm on her phone might sound.

* * *

Castle shuffled into the kitchen following the smell of coffee. "God bless you," he exclaimed as Kate handed him his "World's Best Dad," mug. "I didn't hear your alarm."

"I woke up before it, so I turned it off," Kate answered. "Alexis said she was meeting a couple of her friends at Starbucks before school. Your mother has yet to materialize, but I think I heard a yoga chant coming from her room."

"Uh huh, she has several of those she uses to prepare for a new role. At least it wasn't her vocal projection exercises," Castle yawned. "Those would have shaken the walls."

"You okay, Babe?" Kate asked.

"I will be when I finish my coffee. Precinct, or straight to an interview?"

"Interview," Kate decided. "The guys we want to see, start work early in the morning. We should be able to catch them on the job, away from the company execs. We're more likely to get something out of them, without the higher-ups around."

* * *

Bert Harley, exterminator extraordinaire, removed his mask and promptly had a coughing fit. The acrid traces that remained in the air shouldn't have bothered him. They never used to, but ever since he'd worked in the flooded neighborhood, he'd become more sensitive to the effects of the pesticides, not just in his lungs, but he'd been getting rashes too. Damn the boss anyway. Labels or not, he'd suspected that the chemicals they were using weren't approved for that application. They just didn't smell right. But he'd had to use them or risk losing his job. With two kids approaching college age, he couldn't have afforded to do that, so he'd knuckled under. Now he wasn't sure he'd made the right choice. Both Mona and Jeffrey had been awarded scholarships anyway. And what the financial aid didn't cover, they could earn during the summer. And he sure wasn't getting any healthier. When the beautiful cop and the writer who was with her started asking questions, it was a relief. Detective Beckett had assured him he was in no trouble, she was just filling in some details in a murder investigation. He couldn't imagine what a murder had to do with a job that happened years before, but he was glad there was someone he could finally voice his suspicions to. So far that had been limited to his doctor, who without knowing what chemicals had been involved, couldn't do much except give him an inhaler. Maybe, if Detective Beckett and her partner uncovered the truth, it would help his doctor do better. He hoped so, for his own sake and for the other guys the boss had screwed over. He really wanted to live to see some grandchildren.


	33. Chapter 33

Emergence

Chapter 33

Mark Hamburger slid into the seat of his new Escalade. It had taken a chunk of the funds he had squirrelled away, to buy the vehicle, but he had been in a celebratory mood. With the pest Marsha Anders gone, he was safe. The police hadn't even announced a suspect, and he doubted that they would. A man going into the women's restroom might have been noticed, but not a woman. Dilly had made sure she'd left no fingerprints. Her DNA wasn't in the system, and with no working cameras in the subway station, there was no way she could have been spotted. The luxurious SUV would be the perfect vehicle for a little getaway. He had another round of gifts from grateful entrepreneurs coming in soon. Later the two of them could do something more extravagant. But for now, a drive north to find the perfect place for some vigorous screwing was just what he was craving. And what he craved, he got. Dilly had texted that she was all packed. He just had to pick her up and go.

* * *

"Castle if we put together what we got from Bert Harley with what the other tradesmen that we and the boys talked to said, we have enough to bring Mark Hamburger in," Kate announced. "The boys are taking care of it now."

Castle grinned at her. "Just give me a heads up to make fresh popcorn before you grill him."

Ryan and Esposito trudged off the elevator and into the bullpen.

"Where's Hamburger?" Kate demanded.

"The only Hamburger we could get right now would be from Remy's," Esposito responded in disgust. "Our perp took off for a long weekend. He didn't tell anyone where he was going except to say up north."

"We have his DMV," Kate said, "can't we track his car?"

"That might be our one break," Ryan said. "The records have him owning a Buick Riviera. But a couple of his co-workers saw him in a black Escalade, brand new. Chances are there's only a temporary registration. We're tracking it down now."

Kate slammed her palm on her desk. "Damn! He could be states away."

"Kate," Castle offered. "The man went away for a long weekend. If he doesn't know we're after him, he'll be back. All we need to do is wait."

"Unless he calls his office and someone tells him the cops were there," Kate said.

"He isn't exactly the city's most conscientious official," Castle pointed out. "He probably won't."

The phone on Kate's desk rang, and she checked the caller ID. "Someone can't resist checking in from vacation. It's Captain Montgomery." Kate quickly apprised the captain on the situation with Hamburger and advised that he'd have nothing to gain by returning and spoiling his own vacation. She could hear Evelyn in the background as he reluctantly agreed.

* * *

Evelyn Montgomery surveyed the furnishings in the kitchen of the cabin that she and Roy had rented on the Cape. It was light jacket weather at best, but the logs the walls had been constructed of provided good insulation. There was also fireplace and a generous woodpile. The regionally crafted quilts on the beds would be more than enough to keep them warm at night, especially if they snuggled. There were plenty of pots, pans, and table settings in the little kitchen. The one thing that was missing was food. She knew Roy planned on going fishing, but even if his luck was good, they'd need a lot more than that. She'd noticed what looked to be a well-stocked grocery store in town, where the locals shopped. Hopefully, the prices had not yet been jacked up for the tourist season. She considered making a run for supplies on her own, but she'd noticed Roy eying a tackle shop. They could both enjoy the short trip."

* * *

Especially with Kate Beckett's report still fresh in his mind, Roy Montgomery couldn't help noticing the spotless black Escalade that stood out from the more weathered and rugged vehicles parked along the streets of the small town. While Evelyn shopped to stock the refrigerator and the cabin's tiny pantry, he went to take a closer look. The vehicle bore a temporary registration from the state of New York. Either it was one hell of a coincidence, or it belonged to Mark Hamburger. He quickly texted Kate, asking her to send him a description and picture of the suspect, and sat in his own car to keep the Escalade under surveillance.

When Evelyn arrived at the Montgomery's vehicle with several canvas bags filled with groceries, she was surprised to find the cargo area empty. She'd expected at least a few new fisherman's toys. Roy was just sitting behind the wheel, staring across the street. She slid in beside him. "Are you all right Roy?"

"Go back inside the store like you forgot something," he urged. "I think we just stumbled onto the car of the dirtbag Kate Beckett is looking for. I called her and the local cops, but until they can coordinate and get here, I'm keeping an eye on it. I need you out of the line of fire, just in case, and I need an excuse to keep sitting here." He showed her the gun he'd retrieved from the glove compartment. "Baby, please, just go." He kept watch while Evelyn hurried away.

A man and a woman came out of a seafood restaurant and walked toward the Escalade. As they came closer, Montgomery was pretty sure that the man was Mark Hamburger. He wasn't close enough to make out his features, but the height, weight, and coloring matched. The woman was a complication. He had no idea if she was an accomplice or an innocent party. He couldn't take the chance that she might be injured if he approached Hamburger. The two of them looked friendly enough, more than friendly. Roy guessed that they shared more than meals. They climbed into the SUV, and the man Roy assumed to be Hamburger started the engine. Roy had to follow. He hoped Evelyn would forgive him for leaving her and that the town at least had a cab, an Uber or a Lyfft.

* * *

"Montgomery did what?" Castle asked.

"He found Hamburger, or at least he thinks he did," Kate explained. "Our suspect is with some woman in a bungalow on Cape Cod. The local and state police are watching the place, looking for an opportunity to arrest him without endangering the woman or any other civilians. Damn, I wish I was in Massachusetts!"

"To do what?" Castle inquired. "To try to nab a suspect, one who could easily take a hostage, in unfamiliar territory? Roy is there. He knows what he's doing, and the local cops will know the area better than Hamburger does. Time is on our side. They'll get him."

"When they do, I'm going up there to bring him back," Kate insisted.

"Much as I wish you wouldn't, I wouldn't expect anything else," Castle replied.

* * *

Dilly Latshaw gazed out the window of the bungalow she was sharing with Mark. Something wasn't right. There were too many vehicles around, and there was a definite stench of cop in the air. She doubted they were after her. The bungalow was in Mark's name. It was his car. She had no record. There was no reason for anyone to suspect she was more than a woman having a good time - the times he could get it up - with a man. If anyone did come after Mark, she would play innocent. If he decided to burn her, he only stood to incriminate himself more. If something did happen, she'd just wait it out. She knew about the stash in his storage locker, and she knew where he kept the key. There would still be enough there to get her going again.


	34. Chapter 34

Emergence

Chapter 34

Dilly sat up in bed in disgust. Not only had Mark fallen asleep thirty seconds after he'd come, leaving her in the sticky mess, now he was snoring. It wasn't a cute little rumble now and then either. She could have sworn he was sucking in the walls with each in-drawn breath. She reached for her phone on the bedside table, to check the time. There were a couple of hours left of the afternoon and she sure as hell didn't want to spend them in the cabin listening to Mark's obnoxious imitation of a chainsaw. The bungalow wasn't far from the beach. The ocean was too cold to swim in without a wet suit, but she could take a walk. If she was right about the cops outside, she might even clear the way for them to come after Mark and leave her out of it, and if she was wrong, at least she'd get some peace and quiet. Mark didn't even move when she left the bed. She pulled on jeans and a sweater that would work for a stroll along the shore, topped them with a jacket and went out the front door of the bungalow. She saw a tiny glint of light that might have been a reflection of binoculars, but no one bothered her. She hadn't expected that anyone would. She took the rough dirt path that led to the ocean.

"Okay, looks like he's alone in there now. Let's make sure." Sergeant Brock instructed his surveillance team through there walkie talkies "Have a look, Mayfair, quietly."

Officer Mayfair cautiously made her way to a side window of the bungalow. She swiped absently at a strand of hair that was blown in her face by the breeze off the ocean. When she'd started the day, her hair had been tightly constrained by a French braid, but that had been many hours before, in a shift filled with crouching in hiding and hoping that the mosquitoes would not arrive in force. It was a relief to be on the move. She peered between the cracks in a wood shutter that covered a side window of the bungalow. The suspect lay sprawled beneath the disheveled covers of a queen bed, mouth open and a dribble of drool at the corner of his lips. She could hear his snores even through the window. Ugh! No wonder his female companion had taken off. Mayfair gave the all clear sign for the other cops to approach while keeping an eye on the man assumed to be Mark Hamburger.

Gun in hand, with two cops with weapons drawn behind him, Brock banged on the bungalow door. Mayfair could see the suspect stir, but there was no sign of any type of weapon nearby. She nodded at Brock to try again. Brock banged louder.

Hamburger's eyes opened, and he looked around for a moment, recalling where he was. The banging on the door, that had yanked him from dreamland continued. "Yeah, just a minute," he called, looking for his pants and wondering where Dilly was. She'd left after sex before. It wasn't any skin off his nose. He wasn't into cuddling. Once he'd gotten his rocks off, he didn't care if she stuck around or not. He pulled on his slacks and his golf shirt and answered the door. A shudder ran through him at the sight of three gun muzzles trained on his chest. "Mr. Hamburger," Brock said mildly, "I need you to come with us." As Brock led a cuffed Hamburger toward a police unit concealed behind surrounding shrubbery, he nodded at a waiting Roy Montgomery.

* * *

Kate pulled her unit into the lot surrounding the police station on Cape Cod. She would have liked to have Castle with her, but two people were not needed to make a four-and-a-half-hour drive, and clearing Castle to be in interrogation with her in another state would have been complicated. Ryan and Esposito were following, to take Hamburger back to New York, once the appropriate paperwork was completed, but she wanted to talk to the man while Montgomery cut his way through the red tape. She also wanted to talk to his girlfriend, who had shown up back at the bungalow after Hamburger was arrested. The local cops had reported that she had been shocked and dismayed that her boyfriend was a suspect in a murder, but Kate wanted to form her own opinion of Dilly Latshaw. She'd met many felons of both genders, who could give Martha Rodgers a run for her money with their acting skills. Again, she wished Castle was with her. With his skills at observation both as a crime novelist and a poker player, he was pretty good at spotting tells.

The interrogation room wasn't much different than the one at the Twelfth Precinct. It had the same table, microphones, and less than comfortable chairs. Kate was already waiting, with her favorite leather-covered file folder, when Mark Hamburger was brought in. You've made a mistake Detective," Hamburger declared. "I haven't done anything wrong."

"You know, Mark," Kate began, "I'm a homicide cop. In fact, I'm the homicide cop with the highest clearance rate in the city. I solve murders, and you would be amazed at just how many killers have sat across from me claiming they did nothing wrong. A lot of them are in Ossining Prison now. A lot of them are at Rikers waiting to go to Ossining. But let's not talk about murder right now. You see, I'm also on Mayor Weldon's Anti-Corruption Commission, and you stink of corruption Mark. What's coming off you is practically choking me right now. Work you took bribes to permit, work that made the men who performed it sick, that is making children - little kids - sick right now. We have you cold for that, Mark. We have the deposits to your accounts, and we have records from the companies that paid you. And juries just love crooked governmental officials Mark, especially when they make kids sick. They love them so much they put them in nice safe places. You'll be going away for a vacation in something a lot smaller than a bungalow at the beach. But you know what else? I'm not the only one who found out what you did. Marsha Anders knew, and Marsha Anders was murdered. Hell of a coincidence, wouldn't you say? And here's the thing, Mark. Not only did you have a motive to kill Marsha, you knew the video cameras were out in the subway station where she was murdered. You didn't arrange to have them fixed, so why would you need to know that?"

Mark Hamburger stared silently at Beckett. "I think the reason will be obvious to a jury, Mark. The same guy who was responsible for the poisoning of helpless children killed to cover it up."

"I didn't kill Marsha Anders," Hamburger protested. "I didn't go near the woman!"

"Then who did?" Kate pressed. "You had motive and opportunity. And it wouldn't have been hard for you to come by the means. It's not like you needed a gun to kill Marsha Anders. All you had to do was choke the life out of her."

"I didn't kill her," Hamburger insisted. "But I want to make a deal to tell you who did."

Kate closed her eyes and shook her head. "Yeah, Mark. I'm sure you do."


	35. Chapter 35

Emergence

Chapter 35

Dilly would have liked to get back to New York. Unfortunately, for her, that was easier said than done. Mark's car had been impounded. The direct buses from the Cape to New York were not yet running for the summer tourists. She'd have to catch one at the transportation hub in Hyannis. And she hated buses anyway. A train was even farther away, and Amtrak was no pleasure excursion. In any case, it would look pretty suspicious for her to run out on her boyfriend. With wide and sincere eyes, she'd claimed to have no clue about any crimes he was accused of committing and had told the police that she believed he was innocent. So, she hung around the bungalow waiting for things to cool down. She wasn't surprised when Kate Beckett came to the door. She wished it was a male detective. Men were easier to fool with a sad smile or properly helpless body language. The steel in Beckett's eyes told her that her standard gambits were unlikely to work. She would have to mix in as much truth as possible with her disavowal of any knowledge of Mark's sins. The more fact that surrounded it, the more convincing the lie.

Dilly and Kate took seats next to each other on the bed. "How long have you known Mark Hamburger, Ms Latshaw?" Kate inquired.

"A couple of years. We met at a watering hole called the Sleek Cheetah. It's kind of a play on words. The place has a reputation as the spot where men cheating on their wives go to pick up women." Dilly leaned in toward Kate. "You know, no entanglements, no complications, just fun and games. I thought Mark was just one of the guys looking for a one-night stand. I was surprised to find out he wasn't married. He just liked women to play up to him. And he was willing to put out the money for drinks or whatever else, to make it happen. I don't like complications either, and we sort of clicked. We've had a lot of fun together." Dilly leaned in again. "Confidentially, I would have preferred a nice hotel with room service, but Mark likes this place, and he's paying the freight. The beach is kind of pretty and the seafood is fantastic."

"Has Mark ever talked to you about his work?" Kate questioned.

"The usual complaints. You know. He deserves to be paid better. His boss is an asshole. His staff are idiots. I don't pay much attention," Dilly admitted. "I just smile sympathetically until he finishes venting, so we can go on to more interesting things."

Kate nodded. "Uh huh. Been there. Did he ever mention a Marsha Anders?"

Dilly leaned her face into her palm, her middle finger stretching up to stroke the side of her nose.

"No, he never did. He bitched about some of his exes sometimes. Too clingy. Too demanding. He was a bear about women forgetting to shave their legs. But he never mentioned her, that I can remember."

"How about remediation or pest control?" Kate pressed.

Dilly shook her head and smoothed an imaginary wrinkle from her pants. "I don't even know what remediation is. And pest control? The only pests he ever talked about were the people who bugged him at the office. I'm really sorry Detective. I'm afraid I don't know anything that can help you or Mark."

"That's okay, Ms Latshaw," Kate assured her. "You understand, I have to check out every detail."

Kate left the bungalow certain that Dilly Latshaw was lying. The question was, lying about what. Once Mark Hamburger was transported back to New York City, the D.A. there could negotiate for him to spill his guts. Then maybe she'd know. As far as she could tell, with Montgomery handling the paperwork, she was done on Cape Cod. She was startled at the realization that she hadn't even thought about going back to check on things at her apartment. She was looking forward to a night with Castle in the loft.

* * *

Castle stared at the page on the screen of his laptop. He'd repeated the same adjective three times. He was getting punchy. He'd been using Kate's absence to get as much writing done as he could, but he'd reached the point of diminishing returns. She'd texted him a few hours before to say she was on her way back from Massachusetts. Unless she hit heavy traffic, she should be back soon. It was the perfect time to open a bottle of red wine to air. Alexis was at an overnight with some of her girlfriends and mother was having a night out with - what was his name - George. He shuddered slightly at the thought that his mother might be doing the walk of shame in the morning. There were some images he never wanted in his mind. But the time alone with Kate would more than make up for the ew factor.

* * *

Kate leaned against the steering wheel in frustration. A truck had blown a tire and swerved into the guardrail. Somehow the load it had been carrying had spilled all over the highway. She'd seen a couple of pieces of it that the emergency crew was attempting to pick up. They were the cheap toys and novelties made in China and sold by the gross as promotional items and stocking stuffers. They were small and light enough to have scattered everywhere, even across lanes. Most of the junk was plastic, but some of the metal items could have sharp points or edges, and puncture the tires of unlucky drivers. The mess would have to be cleared before the flow of traffic could continue. She texted Castle that she would be a while. He sent back a sad emoji, but with the message to just come back safely. That was sweet enough to make her smile. She regarded the folder sitting on the passenger seat next to her. There was no reason why she couldn't use the time she was stuck, to review the facts of the case. She switched on her dome light and began to scan the pages. She'd downloaded and printed out what she could find quickly on Delilah (Dilly) Latshaw. Hamburger's girlfriend was listed as an alumna of Foster Prep. She'd claimed not to know the meaning of the word remediation, but Kate knew that particular private school had pretty high academic standards. She'd known some of their conceited graduates. Eighty percent of their seniors qualified for Regents Scholarships, and the college admission rate was close to a hundred percent. That Dilly would have that limited a vocabulary was unlikely at best. That she'd played dumb, along with gestures Kate had noticed, reinforced Kate's conviction that the woman was lying about what she knew. She might be lying about a lot more than that.

* * *

Kate was surprised that the lights were still on at the loft when she finally arrived. A bottle of wine had been decanted, and its crystal-encased contents were on the table, next to wine glasses waiting to be filled. Castle was asleep in his favorite chair, a book across his thighs. His eyes opened at the click of her heels against the hardwood floor. She leaned down as he reached for her, their lips meeting perfectly. The book fell to the floor as he pulled her into his lap. "Welcome home." Their lips met again.


	36. Chapter 36

Emergence

Chapter 36

Castle turned to Kate as she stretched contentedly beneath the sheet. "Do you have to be at the precinct this morning?"

Kate cuddled into his shoulder. "After my trip to Cape Cod, I won't be expected in until Hamburger is brought back. I do want to set up surveillance on Hamburger's girlfriend Dilly Latshaw's apartment, so we can track her when she returns."

"You think she's involved?" Castle queried.

"I don't have any hard evidence, but my gut tells me that she's involved up to her neck," Kate replied."

Castle laid his wide palm on the warm skin of Kate's abdomen. "And your gut is stupendous."

"I'm even better a little lower," Kate purred, leaning into the pressure of his palm.

Castle's hand trailed downward. "I've noticed." Kate gasped, pushing against his fingertips as he explored her most demanding spot. "Care to pursue that idea further?"

Kate sprang up, hastily clambering on top of him to straddle his hips. "I've never given up on a pursuit yet."

"Then, by all means, let the chase begin," Castle responded.

Kate needed no encouragement, but Castle lent more urgency to her ride, as his hands found her breasts, driving the sensitive tips to ravenous attention and her motion to a frantic pace. As she bucked, he rose with her, the slap of skin against skin marking the frenzied collision of their bodies. As the pressure within them grew, Castle reached between them, stoking a fire on the verge of flash-over. Kate screamed as the waves of completion overcame her, triggering Castle's release in wild concert. She collapsed, her head falling to his chest. He stroked her hair gently as she lay there, willing herself to breathe."

Martha and Alexis had yet to return to the loft when Kate and Rick worked up the strength to make it to the kitchen. "I'm starved. I'll start the coffee if you make pancakes," Kate offered.

"Deal," Castle agreed. "While we work on renewing our stores of energy, tell me more about Hamburgler's girlfriend."

Kate's forehead furrowed. "Some things just don't fit, Castle. She plays the goodtime girl, and I believe it to a certain extent. Why else would she have tied up with a guy like Mark Hamburger? But at the same time, she's also too smart to tie up with someone like him. She must be getting more out of it than sweating between the sheets - not that I object to sweating between the sheets."

"I think you were doing most of yours in open air," Castle noted, "but I certainly agree in principle. So, are we looking at some deep background digging on Ms. Dilly Latshaw?"

Kate nodded as she scooped fragrant ground coffee into one of Castle's premium filters. "We are."

"Compare notes?" Castle suggested after he and Kate had both spent a large chunk of the morning in research.

"Um hmm. You first," Kate said.

"Okay," Castle agreed. "I contacted some of my old acquaintances that you would rather not know about. Dilly Latshaw is known to them. She's insinuated herself for years with various city officials, sometimes higher up the chain than Hamburgler, but always able to smooth the way for 'certain projects.' She has also performed tasks which my contacts preferred to leave unspecified, but I got the impression they weren't talking about vacuuming floors or doing dishes. More like taking out the trash."

"Castle, if you're saying what I think you're saying, it would make sense. Someone might have noticed a man going into a ladies' room, but no one would have looked twice at a woman. Lanie said the ligature marks on Marsha's neck might have come from something like a scarf. Dilly could have been wearing one and used it to kill Marsha. The process would have been almost silent. Then she could have put the scarf back on before she left the restroom. With no cameras, she would have been undetected. Then she could have taken a train or just left the subway. That scenario also fits with what I found. Over the past few years, Dilly's presence was noted briefly in metro section blurbs about the appearances of various city officials at functions like fundraisers. She was viewed largely as arm candy. Obviously, she was more. She may be a more important target for the Anti-Corruption Commission than Hamburger is."

Wheels within wheels," Castle observed. "It makes a great story."

"I'll bet the deal Hamburger wants to make is to flip on Dilly," Kate speculated. "With any luck, once he does, she'll blame him, and we'll have them both. I'll make sure that surveillance on her is tight enough that she can be pulled in the minute Hamburger makes his statement."

* * *

The sound from Louis the Lark's cell phone interrupted his massage. The ringtone indicated a priority call. "Hold on a minute, sweetheart," he instructed the tiny masseuse with amazingly strong fingers. Louis grabbed his phone from a nearby table and listened. His lieutenant, Tony, reported that cops had been sniffing around Dilly Latshaw. That wasn't good. Dilly had always known how to keep her mouth shut, even if her hand was always out. But if the cops actually had anything they could use to apply pressure, she could spill something. She was a cousin by a careless liaison, but not truly part of the family. Her loyalty was not assured. Most of his ears in the N.Y.P.D. had been deafened by the actions of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the bitch Gates in Internal Affairs. He would have to put a couple of his people on Dilly to make sure she behaved. And if she didn't, he hated to lose a resource, but business was business and part of his was to protect family operations. He sighed, sent a couple of texts, and returned to his position on the massage table. Now his muscles could really use some untightening.

* * *

While Kate awaited the impending arrival of Mark Hamburger and A.D.A. Toni Gonzalez at the precinct, Castle studied the notes from his editor. He'd promised Gina that he would make a timely response to revision requests and he intended to keep that promise. There weren't too many suggested changes. Mostly they pertained to making Storm's return to the land of the living more believable. Castle wasn't surprised. Bringing back a hero whose gray matter had oozed out of his skull while his lover cried, had been no easy task. He could afford to tweak a few details of the whole faked death scenario. He was making notes on his phone when Ryan and Esposito arrived with Hamburger. The man looked like he had been through the kind of grinder that produced his culinary namesake, as Esposito nudged him toward the interrogation room. Kate quickly took a place at the table, with the hard-eyed Ms. Gonzalez. An attorney, Jace Chaffetz, summoned for Mark Hamburger, was in the seat beside the suspect. Castle watched with Ryan and Esposito, from observation.

"Mr. Hamburger," Toni began, "you informed Detective Beckett that you know who the 'real killer' of Marsha Anders is and that you wanted to make a deal for that information."

Hamburger nodded and started to open his mouth when his attorney jumped in. "What are you offering, Ms. Gonzalez?" Chaffetz questioned.

"Mr. Hamburger's actions have led to the illness of children, Counselor. That does not incline a judge or a jury to be friendly. Any concessions your client receives would be a gift. If what he tells us is true, and I mean every word of it, and leads to the apprehension of Marsha Anders' killer, we are looking at some reduction of charges. But given that at present your client is the chief suspect in Marsha Anders' murder, his evidence against this mystery person will have to be extremely convincing. Otherwise, Mr. Hamburger will spend a very long time as a meal for fellow inmates with a taste for tender meat."

Hamburger paled and swallowed. He looked at Chaffetz, who nodded. The grafter's mouth held barely enough moisture to croak out his words. "Delilah Latshaw killed Marsha Anders."


	37. Chapter 37

Emergence

Chapter 37

From his seat on the passenger side of a black sedan, Nardo pointed as Dilly climbed out of the cab that was the last leg of her return journey from Cape Cod. "That's her."

"You're right," Luca agreed. "I'd know that ass anywhere. Looks like someone else noticed she's home. See those two guys getting out of the car down the block. They're packing. They're not our people. Gotta be cops."

"We're going to need some support," Nardo said, pulling out his cell phone. "Someone needs to have a terrible accident before they can shoot off their mouth."

Luca sighed. "Shame. I will miss that ass."

* * *

Dilly froze at the knock on her door. It could just be some kid selling something. The doorman discouraged that kind of nuisance, but that didn't stop the brats who lived in the building. She glanced through the peephole. A badge came into view. She was tempted to try the fire escape to get away, but if all the cops wanted was to ask more questions about Mark, that would start alarm bells clanging. She set her face in a bland smile and released the safety lock which was braced by a bar affixed to the floor. "What can I do for the N.Y.P.D.?"

One of the cops held up a badge again. "I'm Detective McNally. This is Detective Washburn. Are you Delilah Latshaw?"

"Yes, but you gentlemen can call me Dilly."

"I'm sorry Ms. Latshaw," Washburn said, shuffling feet encased in scuffed shoes. "We need you to come with us."

Dilly widened her eyes. "I already told a Detective Beckett everything I know about Mark Hamburger."

McNally nodded. "Yes Ma'am, but there are still a few details we have to double check. With a case like his, there are always a few loose ends. It shouldn't take long."

"Alright," Dilly agreed. "I'll just get my purse."

"Sorry again, Ms. Latshaw," Washburn apologized, but before you bring that to the precinct, we'll have to check it. New regulations."

Dilly was glad she'd already stowed her gun in her nightstand. She handed Washburn her Michael Kors satchel. "No problem."

* * *

McNally checked his rear view mirror. "I think we're being tailed. Ms. Latshaw, is there anyone who would want to follow you?"

Dilly repressed a shiver. If what she suspected was true, they were in trouble, but she didn't dare give anything away. "I can't imagine why anyone would want to." She batted her lashes. "Except the occasional guy after my phone number."

McNally twisted to look over his shoulder. "I doubt that's what they're…."

Washburn slammed on the brakes as two cars pulled out in front of him. The following car rammed the unit, hard. Before Washburn and McNally could recover, the two men from the car that had slammed into them emerged and began to fire. Traffic halted and jammed as surrounding drivers panicked. By the time frantic 911 calls were made, McNally and Washburn were bleeding out, and the back of Dilly's head had been perforated by shards of broken glass and a bullet. The cars that caused the collision had been abandoned, and their occupants had vanished.

* * *

"Dilly's dead?" Mark Hamburger exclaimed when Jace Chaffetz broke the news.

"And two police detectives are in critical condition," The attorney added.

Mark Hamburger sank to the metal bench in his holding cell and buried his face in his hands. "Dilly was my only way out."

"Maybe not, if you can tell the police anything about the men who shot the police detectives. Any idea who they were?"

Still covering his face, Mark Hamburger shrugged and shook his head. "I'm screwed."

"I'll do what I can," Chaffetz told him, "but yeah, you probably are."

* * *

"What do we know about the men who took out Dilly Latshaw and shot McNally and Washburn?" a recently returned Montgomery demanded of the cops gathered around the table in the conference room.

"Not much, Sir," Ryan related. "There were no traffic cams at the scene of the shooting. I scrubbed the video. The shooters came from the direction of Latshaw's apartment, and it looked like they were following Washburn and McNally. The plates were stolen, and so were all the cars involved. CSU is going over every inch of all of them for prints, but there were none on steering wheels or the usual spots on the passenger side. Looks like the perps wore gloves, and any other prints we find will probably belong to the registered owners or their families."

"Sir," Beckett said, "from what Castle got from his sources, Dilly Latshaw was involved with organized crime and had been for some time. Along with more deadly assignments, she used her assets to solicit favors from city officials. I've already got the staff of the Anti-Corruption Commission working from that angle. I would guess that a mob family was afraid she'd reveal what she knew about their activities. There should be a trail there. We'll be questioning her former contacts in the administration. Something should pop. But Dilly Latshaw's death also means that Hamburger goes down for the murder of Marsha Anders, and what he did to the kids. By his own admission, he knew Dilly Latshaw killed her. At the very least, that makes him an accessory, and Toni Gonzalez thinks she can build a case for solicitation of murder."

"At least that's one scumbag we can put away for good," Montgomery responded.

Officer Harrison came to the doorway. "We have an update on the condition of Washburn and McNally, Sir. McNally is still critical, but Washburn didn't make it."

Montgomery slammed his fist against the table. "Damn!" He pushed back his chair and stood up. "I need to call his family. Listen, I want all of you working full out on this. Make sure that you have a full accounting of the shooting from every witness and follow every lead, no matter how shaky. Beckett, get with your commission and continue your investigation from there. I want those shooters and whoever is behind them, and I want them yesterday!"

* * *

Louis the Lark paced the thick carpet in his office. He'd already downed two scotches, but it hadn't helped his mood. The idiots he'd sent after Dilly Latshaw had taken out a cop, maybe two. It had been stupid and reckless. They would be punished, but that wouldn't turn down the heat from the N.Y.P.D. The cops would be on the case, with guns and fury blazing. He needed to think of a way to cool things down, and fast. The trouble was, he knew that nothing he could do would completely stop the investigation. But he could slow it down. It would mean losing more people, but two of his soldiers, the biggest fools, deserved to give their lives for the family. At least they could be useful in the end.

* * *

Two dead bodies had been dumped unobserved, in the middle of the night, in the darkest corner of the asphalt-covered lot down the block from the Twelfth Precinct. A note attached read, "Deepest condolences for the death of Detective Washburn. It was a tragedy for all concerned." The DNA of the two men matched hairs found on headrests of the drivers and passenger's seats of the car that had rammed Washburn and McNally. They also matched descriptions of the shooters, obtained from witnesses at the scene. There was little doubt that they had been the ones who'd sent the bullets into Dilly Latshaw and the two detectives. The citizens of New York would relax at what would seem to be poetic justice. Kate Beckett would not relax. She needed to know who sent the undearly departed killers. There was no way she would let up on her investigation until she found out.


	38. Chapter 38

Emergence

Chapter 38

Rick and Kate stood holding hands as the pallbearers solemnly carried the flag-draped casket of Detective Washburn to the front of the assembled sea of blue. Castle was one of the few mourners present, not in a police uniform, but his navy suit blended in with the crowd. Detective McNally had survived, but there were doubts that he would ever return to the force, or even be able to do much more than collect a disability pension. If Kate needed any, that was further motivation for her to pursue the forces behind the shooting of the two cops and Dilly Latshaw.

The flag was presented to Washburn's mother, and the crowd was seated as a eulogy began. Kate's mind wandered. She had been acquainted with Washburn. She was occasionally in the break room when the detective availed himself of the joys of the espresso machine Castle had donated to homicide. But they hadn't done much but exchange small talk. She felt his loss as part of the police family, but not as she would that of a friend. She was angry and frustrated that Dilly's death, to which his and McNally's shootings had most likely been collateral damage, had been so easily engineered. But that much power meant money, and money always left breadcrumbs behind. As much as she wanted to pay her respects to a fallen comrade, she was anxious to get back to work and follow whatever trails she could.

Castle could feel Kate shifting restlessly beside him, even as their fingers were entwined. He understood her impatience to return to searching for evidence. He'd tried to aid her investigation. His sources were polite but uninformative. Dilly's death had sent a message loud and clear that even the suggestion of an open mouth could lead to an open and fatal wound. He would use his speed reading skills to help Kate whenever he could, but other than that, there wasn't much he could do. On Montgomery's orders, she would be pursuing her tasks at the offices of the Anti-Corruption Commission, not at the precinct. Castle was not the fixture there that he was at the Twelfth. Instead, he would be at the loft writing while Kate sought her clues to crime family affairs, unless she had a specific task that called for his skills. He'd no doubt be more prolific in his own endeavors, which would make Black Pawn happy, but he was missing the constant interaction with his partner. Well, he'd seen that coming, which was why he'd been hoping that Kate would make the transition to full residence at the loft. She was almost there, he could feel it, but still hesitating to take the final step over the threshold. He'd promised he'd wait and he would. He just hoped he wouldn't be waiting much longer.

* * *

Louis the Lark was feeling pretty good. Other than brief coverage of the funeral of the late Detective Washburn, the news cycle had shifted away from the death of the cop and Dilly Latshaw. He'd had a little luck there in the form of a mass shooting in Atlantic City. Some crazy had mowed down a bunch of tourists on the boardwalk. It would have been much worse if the gunman had waited a couple of months until there were real crowds, but it was enough to divert media attention. Louis' people were toeing the line, and business was picking up. With the fall of Vulcan Simmons, there was slack to be picked up in the drug trade, but there were better and more important deals to be made. There was a steady flow of cash looted from foreign governments in need of laundering through what appeared as legitimate businesses. Dilly had been helpful with that, getting the city to back off scrutinizing many of his operations too closely. Hamburger had been a useful idiot. But the family could function fine without them. They were in the process of buying a prestigious office building on Fifth Avenue. It was the project of the favored son of new money, but he was not as skilled as his parents and had overextended himself. He'd been frantically searching for a bailout and Louis was ready to become his white knight. Overseas investors would be renting space at a premium, but the transactions would appear as clean as snow, at least snow that fell outside the city. If the enterprise proved to be as profitable as Louis anticipated, the family could expand its efforts. Atlantic City would be a great target. As more and more casinos sprang up across the nation, businesses at the East Coast gambling haven needed infusions of cash to stay afloat and didn't much care where it came from. Louis's family could be the brokers and wouldn't even have to risk a cent of their own. The Fifth Avenue building would be a vital first step. After that, Louis would be ready to proceed down whatever path was most lucrative for him to take.

* * *

Kate shared a conference table with forensic accountant Barry Shultz and RICO expert Marshall Lannister. They also shared takeout from the Blue Dragon. Barry bit down on an eggroll before pointing to one of several spreadsheets laid out on the table. This is the staffing of the planning office. See here? These are the longtime, experienced employees. Their overtime has been essentially abolished, and the number of projects they've been assigned is down to the bare minimum." He pointed to another sheet. "These are newer hires. Major projects have been shifted to them, and their overtime is growing. It makes no sense. The least qualified people have been assigned to the most important work, and the city is spending more to do it."

"Sounds like bureaucracy to me," Kate said. "I've seen that happen in the N.Y.P.D. Older officers get pushed out sometimes to make way for younger members of the force more open to new methods and ideas, even if the new ideas suck. It gives the guys at 1PP something to have committee meetings and write reports about."

"It may be more sinister than that," Lannister suggested. "I think Barry's on to something. I've studied cases like this in other parts of the country, particularly on the West Coast. During the economic boom in Japan, yen were begging for a home. Buildings and businesses in downtown L.A. were gobbled up. When the economy in Japan went stagnant, there was a lot of property going under, and some money of questionable origin came to the rescue. Looks like a family here may be setting up a major laundromat and Dilly Latshaw and her liaisons with Hamburger and some other city officials were part of that."

"So, we look for some operation on the verge of financial collapse that needs big bucks to prop it up?" Kate queried.

"That would be a good bet," Lannister agreed. "but things like that are often kept under wraps as much as possible. The rich and powerful do not like to see their failures become known to those they view as lesser lights."

Kate smiled thoughtfully. "That's all right. I know someone who runs in those circles, or at least on the edge of them. I can gather some intel on what the mob's target might be." Kate closed the folder that had been open in front of her. "I'll get back to you on this as soon as I can."

* * *

Castle heard the door of the loft open and Kate's familiar footsteps. The time at the bottom of the screen of his laptop read two o'clock. He hadn't expected Kate back nearly that early. He joined her as she was hanging her Spring jacket in the front closet. "Something wrong?"

Kate wrapped her arms around his waist. "No, I may have a break. But I'm going to need your help."

Castle drew her to him, kissing the top of her head. "Anything. Always."


	39. Chapter 39

Emergence

Chapter 39

The charity gala was a mix of the buoyant ostentatiousness of the newly wealthy and the understated elegance of old money. Castle had insisted on buying Kate a dress that would fit in better with the former. Covered in silver and amethyst sequins, she blazed with every step in her four-inch designer heels. There would be an auction, but not until the hold the attendees kept on their checkbooks had been loosened by the generous application of alcohol. The last thing Kate wanted was to have her faculties compromised. She slowly sipped a drink which was comprised almost entirely club soda with a little red wine added for color. While she and Castle made the rounds of the room, she listened carefully for any discussion of pending big money deals but heard very little except commentary on how shoddily the starlets had been dressed at the premiere of the latest movie and how the standards at society events had slipped. It wasn't until she parted from Castle long enough to go to the ladies' room that she detected anything pertinent to her investigation. She had just managed to hike up her dress enough to seat herself in an overly ornate stall when she heard the voices of two women. "I swear," the more alto of the two proclaimed, "Christian would never mind paying the appropriate rate for suitable office space, but what the owners of that building on Fifth Avenue proposed was preposterous. No wonder they're going bankrupt. I'm surprised they have any tenants at all."

You can fool some of the people all of the time," the other woman replied without attribution. "I imagine some of the newer members on the list for tonight's gathering will bid wildly on the most worthless of junk, just to prove how much money they have to throw around."

"If they keep behaving in that manner, they won't have it long," the alto opined.

"You're right about that," her companion agreed.

Kate made a note on her phone about a building on Fifth Ave, then emerged after the two women had departed.

Castle's brow was furrowed when Kate rejoined him. "You all right? I was about to ask one of the ladies to check on you."

"Fine. Better than fine, Castle," Kate said. "I think I got what we came for."

"You can give me the details on what lead you've managed to acquire, later. I still need to get what I came for. The Poe first edition that is going up for bid belongs nowhere but in a climate controlled Castle book repository" A waiter offered them a choice of hors-d'oeuvres from a silver tray. "Try one of the tiny quiches, they're wonderful. The best thing here besides the Poe." He rubbed his hands together. "I have an auction to win."

* * *

"Forty-five hundred dollars for _The Raven_ , Castle?" Kate questioned, on the cab ride back to the loft. "You know the whole thing by heart. I've heard you recite it when you were putting in a late night."

"It was a signed first edition, Kate, something touched by the master," Castle protested. "There's magic in that. Perhaps he left behind a bit of his spirit that I can absorb."

Kate touched his cheek, "You really believe that, Castle?"

"I choose to believe it, Kate. The odds against a college kid getting _In a Hail of Bullets_ published were almost insurmountable, but I did it. The odds of becoming a best-selling author were even longer, but that happened too. And to have you come into my life when I needed inspiration the most, that was pure magic. I like to think magic is everywhere, you just have to be open to seeing it, and going after it when you do. Otherwise, life is just something to slog through until you're six feet under. I wish I could share the magic I see with you, Kate."

She snuggled into his shoulder. "I can't help being the cop skeptic, Castle. I've known how magic tricks were done since I was fourteen years old. It's hard to accept that there could be a real thing. But I appreciate your effort."

He pressed a kiss into the palm of her hand. "Maybe someday I'll succeed."

* * *

Kate had just settled into her chair at her desk in her office at the Anti-Corruption Commission when Castle's ringtone alerted her to his call. She thumbed her acceptance. "Kate, we got lucky. My business manager knew what building your gossip girls were discussing. I'm texting you the address and contact information. Word is the ladies were right, the place is failing fast, but some mysterious buyer has come in offering way more than it's worth. The whole transaction practically screams money laundering." Kate blew a kiss through the phone. "Should I pass that on to my business manager?" Castle inquired.

"Babe, you can pass the thanks of a grateful civil servant on to your business manager," Kate replied, "but the kiss is strictly for you."

"Good to know," Castle responded. "Much as I'd love to explore the subject of kissing more thoroughly, it might be best if we waited a while. Alexis is facilitating some kind of cultural immersion experience for her French club tonight. They're not all of age for French wine yet, but there will be French food, they'll all be speaking French and watching a movie in French with no subtitles."

"Castle, what could be more fun to explore than French kissing?" Kate teased.

"Fun for us, maybe, not for Alexis, and not if I have to know about it," Castle declared. "I don't think to indulge in it ourselves, with fifteen high school kids in the loft, is the way we want to go either. But tell you what, when adulthood, at least chronologically speaking, can reign in my domain again, we can not only explore the French kiss, but I have a French tickler and some other toys you might enjoy."

"Mm, I have some you might like too," Kate purred. "What time are Alexis' friends supposed to be leaving?"

"It is a school night," Castle mused, "so I should be able to shoo them out of here by ten, eleven at the latest. Shall we plan for the witching hour?"

"It's a date," Kate promised.

Kate returned to her apartment that night when she'd reached a stopping point on her work for the commission. She pulled open her closet and shoved the mass of clothes she'd not yet decided to transfer to the loft, to one side, so she could reach what was at the end of the rod. Kate grinned at what occupied a satin-covered padded hanger. It would be just perfect. She groped for what had been shoved to the back of the shelf above her clothes. Her fingers curled around just the thing to make her ensemble complete. She checked her watch. She could get in a snack and a nap before meeting Castle later. If she were lucky, she'd be missing some sleep later that night.

The last member of Alexis' group said au revoir and left the loft at eleven-thirty. Castle was beginning to worry. Kate had yet to arrive. He'd called her a few minutes before, but it had gone to voice mail. He hoped that meant she was on her way.

Kate came through the door of the loft at five minutes past midnight, wearing a Burberry trench coat.

Castle greeted her with a kiss and tugged at the belt of her outerwear. "This is a little heavy for the weather, or did the temperature outside plunge?" he queried.

Kate shrugged. "It is a little chilly, and I wanted to trap my personal heat until I got here."

Castle raised an eyebrow. "Really?" Continuing to grasp her belt, he led her to the bedroom, before he pulled the restraining strip of cloth free completely and undid the buttons holding the coat closed. Castle's mouth gaped as what Kate had on underneath was revealed.

Kate took a little cap from one pocket of the tiny ruffled apron of her naughty French maid's costume and pinned it to her hair. She pulled a telescoping feather duster from the pocket of her coat, sloughed off the outer garment and let it fall to the floor. Then she brushed the tip of her tool over the rapidly expanding bulge in Rick's jeans. "Monsieur Castle, you have work you would like me to do?"

Castle scooped her up and laid her on the bed. "Mademoiselle Beckett. I'm sure I'll think of something that strains for your expert attention."


	40. Chapter 40

Emergence

Chapter 40

"Kate," Barry Shultz said, "I've traced the buyer of that Fifth Avenue building. It's a Louis Montalvo."

"Better known as Louis the Lark," Marshall Lannister interjected. "He's risen through the ranks of the Spillano family. This deal is likely to make him or break him."

"I'd vote for breaking," Kate responded. "But getting him for money laundering is not getting us any closer to proving he was behind the deaths of Dilly Latshaw and Detective Washburn."

"It could be," Marshall offered. "The U.S. attorney is watching this whole affair very carefully. Larry Riddick told me the D.A. is too. The minute the monies are transferred, they're going to come down on everyone involved. With any luck, at least one of Louis's people will flip to save his own ass. Then we should be able to nail him on everything."

"I hope you're right," Kate said. "but if we're at a stopping point, I think I'll call it a day."

Marshall glanced at his watch. "My wife will probably faint when I actually make it home in time for dinner, but I think I will too."

"And there's hot pastrami calling my name at Katz's," Barry added. "See you in the morning."

Kate and Marshall nodded and all three commissioners took the elevator together.

* * *

Immersed in crafting Derrick Storm's latest intrigue, Castle wasn't aware of Kate's arrival in the loft until she came up behind his chair and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Mm," Castle murmured, snuggling back against her. "Home early once again. I could get used to this."

"You shouldn't Castle," Kate advised, "but right now I'm playing the waiting game and I'd rather do it here than in the commission offices."

"Well far be it from me to refuse any opportunity for your company, as unexpected as it might be," Castle said. "Alexis is going straight from school to a performance of a string quartet at Hudson University. She's checking out the quality of their music department to see if she wants to arrange lessons there during the summer or continue to stay with her private teacher. Mother has an assignation of some sort, so I'd say the possibilities were endless, except for my unceasing admiration for your end."

"Yours isn't so bad either, Castle," Kate said.

"So perhaps a little late afternoon de… what the hell is that?" Castle exclaimed as sound rattled the walls."

Rick and Kate went to the tall windows that looked down on the street and regarded the scene below. Traffic was blocked and men with jackhammers had begun the job of tearing up the asphalt. "It's rush hour," Castle noted. "Since when does the city dig at rush hour? Usually they're more disposed to disturbing slumber than traffic."

Kate pointed to spreading water barely visible except by the reflection of city lights, against the dark surface of the road. Must be a broken pipe, and a pretty important one at that. Want to bet there's no water in the building?"

Castle went to the tap in the kitchen which groaned and rattled, spitting out a stream of water at first, before slowing to a drip. "Damn! That lets out play time in the shower, among other things - at least here."

"We could go to my place," Kate suggested.

Castle stiffened for a moment at the reminder that Kate was still maintaining her own domicile. "We could," he agreed slowly, "but your shower isn't built for two. Or we could make some very high-class lemonade out of the deafening lemons we've been handed and see if there's a suite available at The Haven. They don't take reservations. They specialize in accommodating spur of the moment retreats and they're far enough away from here to be unaffected by the water situation, which might also encompass your apartment."

"You have a point," Kate considered. "Alright Castle, give The Haven a call."

* * *

Kate looked around the suite she and Rick had been ushered into by an obsequious clerk. The man exited quickly once Castle had handed him a hundred-dollar bill, requested they not be disturbed, and inclined his head toward the door. The rooms were nothing like the ones she and Castle had shared in California. There was no mural on the wall, and rather than looking like the decorator had been inspired by an expensive bordello, the colors were rich but muted. The dark burgundy drapes were substantial enough to block any unwanted light. The bedspread was burgundy and charcoal brocade, as were the bolsters that topped it. The well-padded carpeting was charcoal as well. "Castle, this doesn't seem to be your style."

"That's true," he agreed. "I generally seek out more stimulating surroundings, but we both needed some peace after the racket in the loft. We won't be here that long anyway. Didn't your contact in the city's maintenance office say repairs in the street would be completed within a few hours? I know Alexis will be fine when she comes home, but I don't want to leave her alone in the loft all night if I can help it, and who knows when Mother will be straggling in. I figure we can amuse ourselves as we wish and avail ourselves of room service. I understand the Chateaubriand here is sublime. Then I'll give Eduardo a call to see if the cacophony has ceased and the water has been restored, before we return to the loft. If not, I can tell Alexis to get one of the guest rooms at the University. Mother can fend for herself."

"Sounds like a plan, Castle. Just what amusements did you have in mind?" Kate queried, running her fingertip over the skin exposed by the vee of his shirt.

"Before we were so rudely interrupted, I was thinking of showering with a friend," Castle replied.

Kate began to unbuckle his belt. "And what friend would that be?"

"There's only one here," Castle pointed out, pulling Kate's top over her head.

"So, there is," Kate agreed, unzipping his pants and giving them a push that sent them to the floor.

Castle did the same with the linen slacks Kate wore. What remained of their clothing was left in a trail toward the opulent bathing facilities. Castle reached for the uni-faucet that controlled both the amount of water and the temperature in the oversized shower. "How hot do you want it?" he asked.

"As hot as we can stand," Kate replied.

"Then let the steam rise," Castle declared, and they stepped beneath the flow together. Their lips met and bodies melded beneath the stream that pelted their skins. Slick with moisture, Kate slid easily upward as Castle lifted her, wrapping her legs around his hips. He braced her against the back wall of the enclosure as she buried her fingers in the damp strands of his hair. She pressed her lips against his, her tongue seeking its partner. The water splashed against the glass door as they executed the inborn steps of the most ancient of dances and improvised new ones, vapor swirling in the heat. Like a volcano approaching eruption, the pressure within them mounted, impatience and ecstasy warring. Kate arched, her legs almost slipping loose from their grip on Castle's frame as internal shock waves crested and pounded through her. Castle held her fast until the quakes that engulfed both of them quieted. Drained, they leaned against the wet wall for support as the water contained to rain down, until Kate regained enough strength to halt it. After wrapping each other in the pre-warmed luxurious plush of the hotel's towels, they collapsed on the bed, hands clinging, as the last of the day became the first moments of night.


	41. Chapter 41

Emergence

Chapter 41

"What did Eduardo say?" Kate inquired, from the hotel bed, her eyes still closed.

"He said that the city is still filling in the trench they made in the street, but the water is back on," Castle replied. "If we take the subway, or a cab drops us off a block away, we can go back anytime."

Kate turned over and burrowed into a pillow. "I know you want to be home for Alexis, but I'm not sure I want to leave yet. I'm not a hundred percent sure I can move, and this bed feels really good right now."

"This is one of the few days you haven't burned the candle at both ends, that neither of us has," Castle pointed out. "We both needed to get away, if only for a few hours. Having the street flood was a blessing in disguise." He picked up his watch, which he'd just managed to put on a nightstand in their dash to the shower. "We still have some time before Alexis gets back, and she doesn't need me to tell her bedtime stories anymore. Sometimes she tells them to me, usually with a point about something she wants to correct in my behavior. She just feels more secure going to sleep if I'm in the house. We don't have to rush."

Kate propped herself up on one elbow. "You know something, Castle, when I first met you at your book party, I thought just about everything about your behavior needed correcting."

"An opinion shared by both Gina and my mother," Castle replied. "What, if anything, changed your mind?"

"The first time I saw you really being a father when Alexis came to the precinct after Hayley Blue was murdered," Kate explained. "You were understanding, even compassionate, but firm. Alexis may think she plays the role of the parent, but she's wrong. You are a good father, and it touches almost everything you do. Without that, I'd still think you were an irresponsible, selfish jerk."

"Thank you, I think," Castle responded. "But you're right. Having a child changes your whole world, or at least it changed mine. I didn't know that kind of deep, overwhelming love was possible until Alexis was born. I still didn't know it was possible outside a parent-child relationship - until I met you. Kate, I'd walk into a tornado for you."

Kate smiled and sat up. "I doubt that will be necessary, Castle. But I do remember you running into a burning apartment. I was just too upset and embarrassed to say a proper thank you."

"Embarrassed that I saw you naked? You seem to have overcome that." Castle quipped.

"Embarrassed that I missed something about the case, something that you figured out. I wanted to be able to be the one who discovered we'd been conned, especially with Jordan Shaw around. I almost didn't give you credit for it, but I didn't know your reasoning, and she would have figured out that it came from you anyway."

"And how did you get over that?" Castle asked.

"I realized it was better to have a partner - a real one who could always be there for me. If I had died in that freezer, at least I wouldn't have been alone. And if you hadn't disarmed that bomb, or at least if we hadn't worked together to stop it, the city would have been radioactive. And then there are other things we do extremely well together."

Castle plopped back down on the bed. "Care to elaborate?"

"I think," Kate said, running her fingertip down his roughening jawline, "as long as we have some time, it would be better if I showed you."

* * *

Kate's cell phone buzzed at seven A.M. the next morning. She reached for it out of instinct, taking an instant to realize she was back in the loft. "Marshall Lannister's voice came through the speaker. Kate, I'm sorry if I woke you, but I just got an alert that the money to buy the building was transferred from an account in the Caymans. They probably timed the transaction to be executed first thing in the morning. Anyway, both the US. Attorney and the D.A. will be moving forward. I've already called Larry Riddick to coordinate with his people. Barry will be on top of things as soon as Larry can move in to seize the records. I just wanted to give you a heads up so you'll be ready to run with anything we get, to develop the links to Latshaw's and Washburn's murders."

"Thanks, Marshall, I appreciate it," Kate said stretching. Her arm met empty space at Castle's spot in the bed. From the aroma wafting from the kitchen, she guessed that Castle was making breakfast or at least coffee. Once he'd said goodnight to Alexis, he'd fallen asleep quickly. She had not been so lucky. The sleep she'd gotten at the hotel had upset her rhythms, and she'd lain awake with both the details of the case and of her life roiling through her brain.

Kate had loved being able to come to the loft just to be with Castle the afternoon before. But, quickly as he'd tried to quash it, she'd seen the look on his face when she mentioned her apartment. She could tell that her reticence to fully commit hurt, even as he kept his promise not to hurry her about it. He'd also freely admitted his devotion to her, while she'd done somewhat less than reciprocate. She wasn't sure what was holding her back. There was a missing piece somewhere, but it wasn't with Castle, it was with her. She was looking for something more than the satisfaction she drew from closing cases for the N.Y.P.D., even more than the Anti-Crime Commission. She wanted to play on a bigger stage, maybe feel like she was a better match for a best-selling, not to mention multi-millionaire, author. The realization hit her like the jackhammers had shattered the asphalt. She'd been in awe of Castle since she was nineteen years old. That awe had slipped a bit when he'd forced his way into her professional life, but much as she pretended to everyone, especially herself, that it had vanished or she'd never had it in the first place, that feeling had never died. She was always trying to prove herself to everyone, but especially to him. That effort was keeping her from knocking down the last piece of the wall that had encased her since her mother's death. She just didn't know what kind of a sledgehammer she needed for the final demolition. She just knew she'd keep searching.

The last remnants of drowsiness banished, she pulled on a robe and padded barefoot to the kitchen. As she'd expected, Castle was there, as was Alexis, on a stool in front of the counter. Castle eased freshly scrambled eggs out of a pan and onto plate already containing sliced strawberries and three strips of turkey bacon. He put it in front of his daughter and looked up at Kate. "You were restless last night. I didn't want to wake you this morning."

"I appreciate it, but Marshall Lannister was not that reluctant. He called to tell me that it looks like Louis the Lark has completed his deal."

"So, the game's afoot?" Castle asked, filling a mug with coffee and handing it to her.

"I don't think I'll be needing a deerstalker hat or a magnifying glass, but yeah Castle, I think it is."

"Got time for some eggs before you join the hunt?" he inquired. "Pan's already warm with the succulent sheen of butter."

Kate took a seat on a stool next to Alexis. "How could I turn down an offer like that?"


	42. Chapter 42

Emergence

Chapter 42

Tony Scalisi was beyond nervous. A raid orchestrated by the D.A. and the U.S. Attorney had seized all the family records. Louis Montalvo had been taken in for questioning, but there was no doubt they'd come for Tony soon enough. Even if Louis didn't give him up, his initials were all over things, authorizing transactions while Louis was otherwise engaged. He'd even met with some of the foreign investors. He would have loved to cut out, the way he suspected Louis had been planning to. But even if he wasn't picked up at the airport or at the docks, he didn't have a stash of cash like Louis did. He also had a wife and three kids. He couldn't make a run without them and there was nowhere they all could go, at least not on such short notice. He would put a plan together, liquidate what assets he could. Maybe they could stay with his cousins in Sicily for a while. But it would take time he wasn't sure he had. He'd just have to do the best he could.

* * *

Louis the Lark sat smirking opposite U.S. Attorney, Elizabeth Weston. The woman was hot, no doubt about it, but the babe next to her was even hotter. He knew who the smoking detective was; Kate Beckett. She regularly popped up in publicity about the N.Y.P.D.'s finest, and she was on the Anti-Corruption Commission with those schmucks Lannister and Reddick. She was also on Marsha Anders' murder. No doubt she'd be a pain in the ass, but looking at her would make the questioning session more bearable. Not that he planned to answer any questions. His consigliere, Rocco Kastenbaum, would take care of that. He'd just wait and wonder what the breasts pushing against the white blouse beneath Kate Beckett's blazer would look like freed from their prison.

Neither Kate, nor Elizabeth Weston had expected Louis Montalvo to talk. The interrogation had been pro forma. No doubt Kastenbaum would get him turned loose on a writ of habeas corpus. Until they'd combed through the records they'd seized and gathered enough evidence to put together a solid case, they didn't have much but suspicion to hold him on. But suspicion would be enough to keep him long enough for his people to get nervous. All they needed was one who was jumpy enough to throw Montalvo under the bus to save his own ass. Sooner or later there was always one. The women just hoped it wouldn't take too long.

* * *

When Kate was finished hearing Rocco Kastenbaum's expected assertions of his client's Fifth Amendment rights, she met with Barry Shultz at his commission office. He was surrounded by piles of paper. "These schmendricks didn't computerize anything. They must have been afraid of being hacked. It will take longer to search out the juicy bits, but it looks like everything is here."

"Can I help?" Kate offered. "I don't speak accountant, but I've picked my way through a lot of financials."

Barry shrugged. "You can try. You might pick up on a name or a date I missed." He pointed to a stack of documents on the corner of his credenza. Those are the ones I've been through already. Go ahead and take a look."

* * *

Kate sucked on the tip of her index finger. She hated paper cuts, but in this case the sting was worth it. She'd spotted some recurring initials in the margins of several pages of figures. They were almost illegible, but she thought she could make out a "TS." A call to a contact at the Organized Crimes Task Force had solicited speculation that "TS" could be Tony Scalisi, a suspected lieutenant of Louis the Lark. As evidence, the scribbled initials were hardly conclusive. They could fit a large segment of the population of New York. Still, now she had a trail to follow. She began to reach out and gather as much information as she could on Tony Scalisi. There wasn't much. He'd been questioned a couple of times but never charged with anything. He wasn't the type to get his hands dirty. His official employment was as the manager of a warehouse. The warehouse was suspected to be mob owned, but that didn't prove criminal activity. Tony and his family lived in a home that would require him to be slightly over-extended on a warehouse manager's salary, but then most New Yorkers had to over-extend to afford housing. She would never have been able to afford her first apartment without insurance money from her mother. And insurance money on the apartment that blew up had helped her to obtain the one she barely lived in now. She'd have a healthier bank account without it. She pushed that to the back of her mind. There had to be more on Tony, but she was out of ideas. She needed Castle.

* * *

Rick was thinking about root beer. He had no idea why, except that he'd pictured one of his characters drinking it and had suddenly developed a yen for it himself. He opened the door to go to the store at the corner, his mother's favorite source of overpriced but ever comforting ice cream, and saw Kate coming off the elevator. "Castle, were you going out?"

Castle backed up into the loft. "Just to the store, but you're a lot sweeter than what I was about to purchase."

"You may not think so in a minute," Kate replied. "I need your help. What were you going to the store for, anyway?"

"Root beer. I was hoping they'd have the little brown bottles of the good stuff, the kind that makes your nose tickle," Castle confessed. "But in a pinch, I was willing to settle for a generic two liter."

Kate ran the tip of her tongue over her lips. "Now you've got me thinking of root beer floats."

"By far the superior idea," Castle allowed. "We could take a walk down to Handy's and you could tell me what you need, on the way."

"Sounds good," Kate agreed.

Castle used a long spoon to poke at the vanilla ice cream atop his root beer. "So, if I have this right, you think the initials you found belong to a Tony Scalisi and you're trying to find something to back up the OCTF's suspicion that Tony is Louis the Lark's lieutenant."

"You've got it," Kate confirmed. "The problem is, the guy's been very neat. He's dropped almost zero bread crumbs."

"But you said he has a family, right?" Castle queried. "Kids?"

Kate nodded.

"Then they're probably on social media," Castle asserted. "If they are at all immersed in the culture of constant oversharing, they may have posted something helpful."

Kate reached across the Formica topped table in their booth at the ice cream parlor to give Castle a quick peck on root beer and vanilla flavored lips. "That is brilliant, Babe! I can get the names of the kids from public records and go from there."

"I can help you with that," Castle offered. "I'm pretty good with figuring out handles."

Kate winked. "I've noticed that about you Castle."

"Actually, I was talking about Twitter and Instagram." Castle wiggled his eyebrows. "But we can get to more interesting things later." His gaze was suddenly held by Kate's rounded lips as she sucked on her straw.

She looked up at him, a tiny dot of ice cream on her lower lip. "Babe, I'm counting on it."


	43. Chapter 43

Emergence

Chapter 43

"Kate," Castle called, "I've got something!"

Rapidly striding into Castle's office, Kate leaned over to read what he indicated on his screen.

"I'd expected to hit pay dirt with the teenage daughter," Castle explained. "Sometimes Alexis posts about every moment in her day. But these are from the son, the middle child. Apparently, he feels his father is being less than truthful with him and complains about it on a regular basis. Look at this posting. He's talking about going to the warehouse where his father works and being told that his father wasn't there because he had errands downtown. Then this one, where he overhears a conversation with someone Tony refers to as boss. The boy sneaked a look at the I.D. on the call and it said 'Lark', but the name of Tony's supposed boss at the warehouse is Smith. And check this one out too. The boy thinks his father is cheating the family because he overheard a conversation about the transfer of family funds. There's a lot more."

Kate picked up the thread. "And with any luck, the dates of the posts should correlate with the transactions Tony initialed in the records we seized."

Castle rubbed his hands together in satisfaction. "Exactly!"

"This is great, Babe. Can you print out all the son's rantings so I can compare them with my paperwork?"

"Your wish is my command," Castle replied, his fingers returning to his keyboard.

Kate pressed a kiss to his temple. "While you're doing that, I can get dinner started. Any requests?"

"My cravings, at least for comestibles, were assuaged by our visit to Handy's. We can explore other types of cravings later."

Kate smiled, batting her lashes. "Yes, we can."

* * *

"Kate, this meat sauce is superb," Martha remarked as the Castle family dug into fusilli and steamed vegetables.

"I can't take much credit for that," Kate admitted. "When she gave me the recipe, my Nona told me she spent 40 years perfecting it."

"Well, I can taste every year of it," Martha declared. "I understand it as an actor. Throughout our lives we are forever striving to hone our craft."

"Then Mother, yours should be honed to the sharpest edge," Castle commented.

"Watch it kiddo," Martha warned. "You're not getting any younger yourself."

"I got my acceptance for the summer program at Hudson University," Alexis jumped in. "It came to the school and the office called me down to pick it up."

"Congratulations," Kate responded. "It should be a great experience for you."

Castle forced a smile to his face. "I'm proud of you, Sweetheart. So, when's the big day?"

"I'll be assigned a dorm room on June third, so I can get settled in over the weekend. Then classes start the following Monday. So, I'll have a couple of weeks free between the end of the term and starting at Hudson."

"Which will include Memorial Day," Castle realized, his smile no longer a façade. "Kate, you turned down your chance to come to the celebration at my Hamptons house last year, but you'll love this. The view of the ocean from my patio is incredible. I set the pool at the perfect temperature. You can swim or just relax in the sun."

"Sounds nice, Castle, if I don't have to work."

"Kate, if I have to get Bob Weldon to issue a mayoral proclamation freeing you up for the duration of the holiday, you will not have to work," Castle asserted.

Kate rolled her eyes. "We'll see Castle."

* * *

Tony Scalisi was going over the final details of his departure from U.S. shores. His funds were almost in place. He'd run into an administrative snafu with the firm handling his investments, but his money was due to be released in a couple of days. His cousins in Sicily had found a villa in Palermo big enough for him, his wife, and the kids. He'd be arriving first, to make sure it was ready, but his wife would come with the children as soon as their school term was over. That would give him time to figure out what to do about his son and daughter's future education. His wife was old family and understood what was going on, but he hadn't said anything to the kids yet. He'd always shielded them from business matters. When the time came, they could be told that the trip to Europe would be a family vacation. He'd cope with the rest later. He was almost convinced that things would turn out for the better, when the cops showed up at the warehouse. He was allowed to make his call to Rocco Kastenbaum, but he had his doubts that the lawyer could save him from the joint forces of the D.A. and the U.S. Attorney's office.

* * *

Tall, dark, and intimidating, Larry Riddick took the lead in Tony's interrogation, with Elizabeth Weston, Marshall Lannister, and Kate Beckett occupying the other seats on his side of the table. "Tony," Larry began, "we know that Louis Montalvo has been running an operation to launder questionably obtained foreign funds, including his latest and most ambitious project on Fifth Avenue. We also know that you're up to your neck in dirty laundry. We have the documentation; names, dates, times. And your face tells me you're not surprised. But this may come as one, you're small potatoes, Tony. We want Montalvo and whomever he answers to. You give us that, and we set you and your family up in WITSEC to live a nice unconnected life somewhere."

Rocco Kastenbaum rose from beside Tony. "As Louis Montalvo's counsel, I have a conflict of interest in these proceedings. I will have to recuse myself from any further discussion." He turned to Scalisi. "I'm sorry, I can't help you in this, Tony, but you know where loyalties must lie."

"Mr. Kastenbaum," Riddick cautioned, "you understand that what you heard in this room is confidential. If you reveal what was said here, to Montalvo, I will have you disbarred and up on obstruction charges."

Kastenbaum's eyes hardened. "I understand, Mr. Riddick." Rocco left the room, pulling the door closed behind him.

"That's right, Tony, you know where loyalties lie, and it is obviously not with you," Riddick pointed out, after the consigliere's departure. "Louis, the organization, they will leave you out in the cold and sacrifice your family on the altar of their business."

"Tony, you only have one choice," Kate added, lowering her voice in sympathetic tones. "Save yourself, save your wife, save your children. Work with us to close down the money laundering operation."

Tony starred at nothing. He'd felt this nightmare coming. The specter of it had awakened him in the wee hours, ever since Louis had been taken in. He thought for a moment about asking for another lawyer, but he didn't see how that would help. The offer was actually better than he'd expected. He'd assumed he'd be cut some sort of a break on charges or the length of his sentence. He hadn't even hoped for a fresh chance. His family would be uprooted from every friend they had, everyone they knew. But that would also have been the case with a flight to Sicily, and wherever else they would have ultimately ended up. At least now they could remain in the states with some semblance of normal life. He turned to Riddick. "I'll take your offer," he agreed.

"A moment," Kate whispered to Riddick, leaving her seat. He followed her out of the room. "We need to put surveillance on Kastenbaum to make sure he doesn't tip off Montalvo."

Riddick smiled knowingly. "Kate, do you think I'm a fool? There already is. Kastenbaum's duty is to the family. He'll ignore what I said. Montalvo will try to run and we'll have him and Kastenbaum."

Kate grinned back. "Larry, I like your style."


	44. Chapter 44

Emergence

Chapter 44

As Kate stretched, she could feel the sun on her skin. The temperature was perfect for lounging by the pool without a cover-up. The fairly demure maillot she wore would not have been her choice if she and Castle had been at his beach house by themselves. If they were alone, she might even have worn nothing at all, but for a Castle family holiday, she felt her tank suit was appropriate. The long weekend was a welcome respite. Tony had known almost every detail of Louis Montalvo's business and the rounding up and interrogations of the parties involved in the mob's money laundering schemes had been a lot of work for her and everyone else involved. But it was worth it. She'd helped to put a real crimp in organized crime, affecting hundreds if not thousands of lives. That was as warming as the rays from above. It was what she wanted, to feel that she was making a real difference. She could feel the cracks forming in what remained of the invisible barrier she had erected around herself, and the bricks were beginning to fall.

The enticing aroma of grilling meat tickled her nostrils. Castle had said he'd be using the green egglike apparatus on the patio behind the house. It looked a little weird to her. On the occasions her father had barbecued when she'd been growing up, it had been a matter of coaxing charcoal to light in the round metal pan of a portable grill set up at a beach or camping area. While she appreciated some char on her meat, the results of her dad's efforts had sometimes either begun to resemble the briquettes or refused to cook at all, necessitating an emergency run for fast food. Castle had assured her that his verdant ceramic contrivance turned out perfect results. It certainly smelled like he was right. She checked her watch which lay on a small side table next to a glass of ice tea festooned with spearmint leaves. It was twelve-thirty. He'd said to expect lunch at one. She had time for a swim or a short nap. She opted for the swim.

* * *

Castle's eyes swept over Kate. Even wrapped in the terry robe she'd pulled on over her damp suit, and with her hair in damp strands, he felt like Venus had arisen from the deep. There was a glow about her that he doubted had anything to do with the brilliant light of the afternoon. It was an air of satisfaction he'd seldom seen except in the immediate aftermath of lovemaking. Her eyes closed as she savored a generous bite of steak. She liked it the way he did, grill marks on the surface and rare in the middle with red juices seeping out on the plate. He had a few juices of his own he would have liked to release if Alexis had not been there and happily chattering away about the end of year sleepover she and her friends were having as soon as she returned to the city.

Alexis snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Dad, did you hear me? I was wondering if we could get more air mattresses to put the sleeping bags on in the great room. The ones we have for camping won't be enough."

Castle tore his gaze away from Kate. "Huh? Oh yeah fine, as many as you need. How many girls are coming to this celebratory slumber fest?"

"Twelve," Alexis answered, "mostly from the French club. They enjoyed the immersion night we did so much, they wanted to get together again, but we're going American, with hot dogs, ice cream, and chick flicks."

"Thanks for the warning about the chick flicks," Castle said. "I'll make myself scarce."

* * *

"Castle, when you talked about making yourself scarce during Alexis' sleepover, were you talking about being away from the loft?" Kate asked while they were loading the dishwasher after lunch.

"I'm not giving that hormonal horde an unfettered run of the place, if that's what you're wondering," Castle replied. "I was just planning on hiding behind the closed doors of my office and the bedroom. Why?"

"I was thinking that it might be better if I wasn't around. I know Alexis is fine now with my being there, but I don't know what kind of example I'd be setting for the other girls."

"Kate, if you feel uncomfortable about that, I understand, but at least half of Alexis' friends have parents who are divorced and have live-in girlfriends or boyfriends. And what do you think they'll see in those chick flicks? Between hundreds of channels and social media, the age of innocence has pretty much left the building."

"Yet you wish you could get Alexis fitted for a chastity belt," Kate pointed out.

"That is entirely different," protested. "You and I are consenting adults, as are the parents and significant others of her friends. She is still a child, and I know from experience that the judgment of teenagers, no matter how brilliant, is less than perfect. Not that mine as an adult has always exactly been great either, but I've always been prepared to deal with the consequences of my choices. Alexis shouldn't have to do that yet."

Kate touched his cheek. "Forever the protective father."

"Guilty as charged," Castle acknowledged.

* * *

Back from the Hamptons, Kate tossed restlessly. She'd retreated to her apartment to pass the night of Alexis' sleepover and somehow her own bed no longer felt right. It was disturbingly empty. And despite the street noise and the sounds that leaked through the walls from the bathroom of the apartment next door, the place was too quiet - or just plain lonely. In the past, she'd rarely been averse to keeping her own company, in fact, she'd often enjoyed it. Things were just different now. She'd become integrated into life at the loft, and staying elsewhere, especially without Castle, just felt wrong. She was almost ready to make the leap to moving in with him - almost. They'd be alone together - barring Alexis' weekend returns - for the summer, but that would only be for two months. She heard the floor protest as she got out of bed to go try to wind down with a late-night movie. The place really did creak.

* * *

Castle's bed was cold. It wasn't that the comforter that topped it wasn't warm enough or that the heat in the loft needing turning up. What it lacked was Kate. He understood her reticence about sleeping with him with Alexis' friends on the other side of a door. There was nothing wrong with discretion. He'd practiced plenty of it when Alexis was younger. He just missed having Kate beside him. She'd been opening up so much more lately. She'd seemed so much more comfortable in her skin, that he was sure she would rather have been together. There was a step that he could take that would solve the problem of propriety once and for all. He just wasn't sure if Kate would be willing to take it with him. He hoped the moment would come when he'd know the time was right to ask. In the meantime, he was going to be prepared. He had a meeting at Black Pawn the next day. Kate wouldn't be expecting to talk to him. After he finished absorbing whatever new proposal his publisher had in mind, he would take a side trip to 47th Street. He knew a guy there who could personally provide him with the perfect thing for when the moment finally arrived. He grabbed Kate's pillow from her side of the bed and buried his face in it. The sheets lost some of their chill.


	45. Chapter 45

Emergence

Chapter 45

Kate leaned her head against Castle's back as he stood in the doorway of Alexis' room, staring inside. It wasn't empty. All the furniture was still there. Some of his daughter's clothes were still in the closet, and many of her knickknacks were still in place, but Alexis' presence was gone. She's fine, Castle," Kate said. "Didn't she just call this morning?"

"She did," Castle confirmed. "She was telling me about all the options in the dining halls. She's going to try to go vegan, at least for the summer, and see how she feels about it."

"Well at least she won't gain the fifteen pounds that new college students tend to pile on," Kate offered.

"I wouldn't know," Castle confided. "I was living in a hovel off campus and money for food was tight, especially if I wanted to be able to afford my books. I think that's why I keep my kitchen so well stocked now. Did you gain weight your freshman year?"

"I did," Kate confessed. "It wasn't just the dining halls. There was a lot more alcohol available than I had access to in high school - and the munchies."

Castle turned to her, his eyebrows rising. "You smoked pot?"

"I went through a groupie phase, and it was part of the culture," Kate admitted. "But all of that ended when my mother was murdered. I could barely look at food. The pounds fell off, and I wouldn't go near marijuana anymore. I was too driven to allow myself to lose control. I had to keep it together for both myself and my dad."

"Right. Your father found his refuge in the bottle, and you found yours in pure determination. I think he climbed out of his hole before you did. He had you to help him."

"Mm," Kate agreed. "But I had to wait for you to come along and pull me up. I've still got a couple of inches to go."

Castle extended his arm. "Right here whenever you're ready."

Kate curled her fingers around his. "I know."

A ding emanated from Kate's pocket. Pulling out her cell phone, she checked the text on the screen. "Hmm. It's from Elizabeth Weston. She says she has something she wants to talk to me about."

"More about the money laundering operation?" Castle queried.

I don't know. I don't think so. Her office has pretty much what it needs to pursue the RICO charges now. And if she needed something from the commission, she'd call Marshall Lannister, not me. She wants to have lunch at Bundy's, at one o'clock."

"Ooh, they have great Rubens there," Castle recalled. "maybe you can bring me a doggie bag."

Kate checked the time at the top of her screen before keying in her response. "I'll see what I can do. They might give me one to go, especially if I say it's for you."

"I am a good customer," Castle acknowledged.

"I'll be meeting her there, but we have a couple of hours before I need to leave."

"I think," Castle murmured, pushing a strand of Kate's hair behind her ear, "we can find something to fill the time."

* * *

Kate arrived slightly out of breath after a hurried walk from the subway, but joined U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Weston at her table at exactly one o'clock. "Very punctual, Kate," Weston observed. "I like that."

"I've seen too many perps get away because someone was just a second behind," Kate explained.

Weston nodded. "I understand. And Kate, your experience as a cop and on the Anti-Corruption Commission is why I wanted to talk to you. We're losing one of our best investigators. His home situation is - well let's just say that chemo doesn't always work out as hoped. Anyway, he's retiring early to have as much time with his wife as he can, and I need someone who can hit the ground running, to replace him. I'm very impressed with both your recent work and your record. This would be a great opportunity for you, playing on a big stage. New York is the hub of a lot of criminal activity. What you saw with Louis Montalvo and his retinue is a small part of it. You could do a lot for the city and the country. You'd be based in Manhattan, doing a lot of your work in the city, but our district covers eight counties. It's a big job, but I think you're up to it."

Kate rubbed her fingers on the surface of the table, tracing an invisible pattern. "I was not expecting this. If I take the job you're offering; I'd have things to wind up, at the precinct and on the Commission."

"You can stay with the commission," Weston said. "I have other work I need Marshall Lannister to do, so you'd be taking on his role as liaison to my office. But you would have to leave the N.Y.P.D. As many years as you've been there, I'm sure that would not be easy."

I knew I might have to do that for the commission anyway. If I take the job, how soon would you need me?"

"As soon as possible, but by July first at the latest," Weston replied. "That would give you almost a month to make the transition, or even take a little time off between if you want it. So, what do you say Kate?"

Images bombarded Kate's thoughts. She hadn't known it, but ever since she'd solved her mother's murder, this was where her path had been leading. Elizabeth Weston was handing her an opportunity to do more, on a silver platter, or at least on a deli plate. There was only one choice that made sense. "I accept your offer."

A server, with Esther on her nametag, arrived at their table and smiled as she recognized Kate from her visits with Castle. "What can I get you?" She inquired.

Weston quickly checked the menu. "Chicken salad, extra pickles on the side and iced tea, unsweetened with lemon, for me."

Esther turned to Kate. "And you?"

"I'll have a Ruben, with a side salad and root beer. And a Ruben and a Doctor Pepper to go."

Esther grinned. "Extra fuel for your writer friend?"

Kate nodded as Esther finished writing the order.

"I take it our waitress was talking about Richard Castle," Weston said, after Esther had left the table.

Kate nodded again.

"I understand he was somewhat instrumental in gathering evidence on Tony Scalisi's connection to Montalvo."

"He went at it from a different angle. That's what he does; he looks at the whole story instead of one little piece of it. As a consultant to the N.Y.P.D., he's helped me put a lot of killers behind bars."

"And you're sleeping with him."

Kate's gut clenched. "I didn't know that was relevant to the job."

"Whom you're sleeping with isn't relevant Kate, but whom you're talking to is. You're going to be handling confidential material. We get a leak; it could blow a case out of the water."

"You have no idea what kind of secrets Castle has had to keep for the good of this city - and this country, Ms. Weston. I trust him with my life."

"I don't think quite that much trust will be required Kate, but if you do want to continue using him as a consultant - unpaid of course - make sure you check with me before he's read into a case."

"I will," Kate promised.


	46. Chapter 46

Emergence

Chapter 46

Castle wrapped his arms around Kate, his chin resting on her hair. "I'm proud of you Beckett. You're already the best damn homicide detective in New York. You've earned this. But how big is the Southern District? Are you still going to be spending most of your time in the city?"

The district covers Manhattan and the Bronx plus Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Orange, and Dutchess counties. I don't know how often I'll have to check out things in the outlying counties, but when I do, it shouldn't be much worse than a normal New York commute. Probably most of it won't even take as long as a trip to the Hamptons. Sullivan's the farthest out and it's only about two hours away. And with the paperwork required, I'll be in Manhattan a lot of the time."

Castle released a breath he'd been holding. "Thank God! I was afraid I wouldn't get to see you."

"Castle, I couldn't lose my partner. I'm counting not only on seeing you - among other things - but Elizabeth knows I'll be asking for your help."

Castle hugged her more tightly. "Still partners. Outstanding! When do you start?"

Kate pushed back just enough to talk, her body still tightly pressed against his." Elizabeth said July first at the latest, but I'd like to try for sooner if I can. I'll need to make sure everything I've been working on at the precinct is tied up or at least fully documented, so Ryan and Esposito can take over. I guess Espo will be moving up a rung. He's senior. Once I do that, I was hoping you and I could have a few days to relax together. I mean with Alexis and Martha out of the loft and all."

"If I help you at the precinct, you can finish even faster, and we can have even more time," Castle offered. "I do have a flair for writing things up."

"When you've actually been willing to do it. But If you can spare the time I would welcome the help. You never did tell me what else Black Pawn wanted you to do."

Castle's arms gapped open in surprise. "I didn't? Oh, I guess I got distracted. They want me to consult on a new graphic novel, with Heat and Rook. I don't have to pen it. They're farming that out. But I have to oversee the project and make sure the characters are consistent with my books and my vision for where their relationship is going."

"And where is that?" Kate asked.

"Forward. But when and how we'll just have to see."

Kate's forehead furrowed. "Listen, I want to start at the precinct bright and early tomorrow, but for now I'd like to kick back a little."

"I thought we did that before you left for your momentous meeting, but I'm always up for an encore."

"We can save that for later, Castle. I was thinking about a trip to the Angelika. They're doing a heckle fest with Plan Nine from Outer Space, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Battlefield Earth."

"Hey, I like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," Castle protested. "Pia Zadora was kind of cute as a little alien. But it sounds like a well spent afternoon. Do we get to throw stuff at the screen like with Rocky Horror, or just toss out clever quips?"

"I'm not sure. They're supposed to post the rules and then announce them before the movies, kind of like reminding the audience to turn off their cell phones. But either way, it should be fun - and not crime-solving."

"I'm in." Castle declared.

* * *

Kate shook popcorn out of her hair. "Castle, you showed remarkable restraint, through most of the showing, anyway. I thought John Travolta looked pretty revolting too. But I always liked him best in _Welcome Back Kotter_ reruns."

"Yeah, me too. Ba-ba-ba, ba-Barbarino. Some of his best moments. Where would you like to go now? You want to indulge in a post heckle repast somewhere?"

Kate brushed a last piece of popcorn off her shoulder. "My stomach is still trying to come unstuck from that giant box of Jujubes you bought. Maybe we can have something at the loft later, but I want to go by my old apartment first. There's something there I want to get."

The creases on Castle's face deepened, but he forced his lips to turn upward. "Fine. I'll grab us a cab."

Kate pulled a small skillet from a cabinet above the stove. "This is it."

Castle stared at what looked like a thrift store reject. "Kate, we have a full set of cookware, minus the dents, at the loft."

"I know, Castle, but this is the pan my Nona cooked eggs in. I'm kind of attached to it, and I thought it might be nice to use it when it's my turn to make breakfast."

Castle found himself wishing he had more family artifacts - other than his mother. "I get it. Is that all you wanted?"

Kate gazed around her apartment. "I don't really need anything else. I'm ready to go."

* * *

"Kate," Castle asked, as they shared his artfully topped lattes back at the loft, "back at your apartment when you said you were ready to go, were you just talking about picking up your family heirloom or did you mean something more?"

"I didn't realize it when I said it, but it was something more. I'm ready now to let go of the place, Castle. I'm just still worried about what will happen when Alexis comes back."

"You mean how it will look."

Kate's teeth dug into her lip. "Yeah."

"I think I can fix that." Castle popped off his stool. "Stay right there. I'll be right back."

Kate watched him disappear into his office and close the door. Castle pulled back the painting behind his desk to reveal a safe. Fingers fumbling, it took him three tries to get it open, but he pulled out a tiny royal blue velvet box that lay atop his papers and tucked it in his pocket. Returning to the kitchen, he went down on one knee in front of Kate.

"Castle, what…?"

"Kate, I have made some bad choices in the past, but I'm as sure of this one as I have been of anything in my life. You and I belong together as partners. I mean that in every way, not just building theory to solve crimes or even making love. I not only want you to share my home, I want you to share my life, always." Castle pulled the box from his pocket and opened it exposing a diamond surrounded by amethysts and set in platinum. "Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you marry me?"

Kate slid off her stool to stand in front of him. The ring was magnificent, but she didn't care. She could only see the look in his eyes, pleading for her answer. She swallowed. Even if she hadn't been consciously aware of it, this was where the decision she'd given to Elizabeth Weston had been leading. She'd needed the job with the U.S. Attorney's office to feel high enough up the chain to be with Castle on a more even footing. That was why her agreement to Weston's offer had sprung unimpeded from her lips. It was not merely her ambition pushing her forward. It was her heart. She believed in one and done and if she said yes, she was saying it forever. She gazed around the loft. She was where she wanted to be. It had already become her home, but not without Rick. Never without him. "Yes, Richard Alexander Edgar Rodgers Castle, I will marry you."

Castle slipped the ring on her finger. "It's going to be great. We're going to be great."

"I'll need to tell my father," Kate said.

"And I'll need to tell Mother and Alexis." Castle held out his hand. "But not quite this minute. "

Kate interlaced her fingers with his. "No, not right this minute."


	47. Chapter 47

Emergence

Chapter 47

At their engagement party at the Old Haunt, Kate was finishing a dance with Castle and beginning to wish she'd worn different shoes. The wardrobe adopted by the female staff of the U.S. attorney's office was less fashion-forward than what Kate had favored at the precinct, especially regarding spike heels. She'd discovered the comfort of lower, chunkier footwear, and both her feet and her back had heaved a sigh of relief. Going back to her previous style was not as much fun as she'd anticipated. "Babe, let's sit the next one out."

Rick and Kate slid into a booth opposite Jim Beckett, who was sipping Irish coffee minus the Irish. Jim lowered his cup. "Nice party."

"Then why were you sitting here by yourself, Dad?" Kate queried.

Castle wiggled his eyebrows. "I'm sure there are plenty of people here from the Twelfth who would happily offer their advice on dealing with the scurrilous behavior of your future son-in-law."

The crags of Jim's face softened. "I think I can handle that, and I know Katie can. I was just thinking about how Johanna would have enjoyed this. She would have dragged me out on the dance floor and lost herself in the music. I miss that kind of joy. I hope you two have found it."

Kate shared a look with Castle. "We have, Dad." She reached for her father's hand. "Dance with me."

"I'll instruct the band to play whatever you wish," Castle added.

"You think they know Blue Velvet?" Jim wondered.

"I take it you mean the ballad voiced by Bobby Vinton, not the magnificently twisted movie by David Lynch," Castle replied.

"I'm surprised you remember it, Rick. It was before your time."

"Yes, but not before my mother's. She used to have it on in the apartment when I was a kid, whenever she was feeling nostalgic. This band prides itself on its versatility, meaning they'll play a gig for whoever pays them. I'll see what they can do."

When the gentle beat of the drums and the bass guitar began, Kate led her father to the dance floor, and the band leader began to croon the sadly romantic classic. Kate put her head on her father's shoulder when the saxophone took up the bridge. "Are you happy, Katie?" Jim whispered.

"I am, Dad. After Mom died, there were a lot of years when I thought I never would be again. I didn't even try very hard; it was like I was just numb and marking time. But Castle, he just wouldn't leave me alone to wallow in my misery, even when I practically kicked him in the teeth to make him back off. He dragged me kicking and screaming back into the world again."

Jim smoothed his daughter's hair. "I'll admit, I was skeptical of him and his motives, but I'm glad he didn't stop trying. I look forward to walking you down the aisle, Katie."

Kate snuggled in. "And I look forward to being on your arm."

When the musical flashback to 1963 ended, Jim and Kate returned to the booth where Castle still sat. "You two waited a while to celebrate your engagement. Have you given any thought to setting a date?" Jim inquired.

"We waited on the party until Martha and Alexis could both come," Kate explained. "And with my new job, we're taking it slow. It will be a year before I have enough vacation accumulated for us to have a decent honeymoon, and right now I'd like to concentrate on making my mark at the U.S. Attorney's office."

"I'm sure you'll have no trouble doing that," Jim said.

"She's already working on a huge case," Castle inserted. "Who would have known that after the market scandals were exposed at the end of the Bush era, Wall Street would still be such a den of iniquity?"

"Anyone who opens a statement from their broker," Jim replied dryly. "Financial misdealings are all over Bloomberg these days, but I know better than to ask for details of an investigation. Good hunting, Katie girl."

"Thanks, Dad."

Castle's eyes swept the room. "Oh, looks like Mother has struck again. Who's she bulldozed onto the dance floor now?"

Kate followed Castle's gaze. "That's Donald Dearing from the Advocate's office. He's the one member of the Anti-Corruption Commission you've never met; he was working mostly behind the scenes. He helped to get the families of sick children resettled in healthier neighborhoods. He's been employed by the city in one way or another for thirty years, but I heard he threw himself even harder into his work after nine eleven. He lost his wife when the towers came down. He's a good man."

"Not a bad dancer either, from the look of it," Castle observed. "Mother seems to be enjoying herself."

"Yeah, he and his wife competed in ballroom competitions. I saw some pictures of them up on the wall of his office. He shouldn't have much trouble keeping up with your mother."

Castle stroked an imaginary beard. "So, I see."

* * *

"Castle, I appreciate your company on my trip to Sullivan County, especially since I can't let you sit in on my interviews. I had no idea you'd be so excited."

"Are you kidding Beckett? The place is steeped in history! Bethel is the site of Woodstock, arguably the most famous concert in history. And the Catskills helped birth the careers of everyone from Henny Youngman to Burt Bacharach. And of course, there was _Dirty Dancing_. The skiing's not bad either."

Kate glanced at the temperature readout on the dashboard. "I think you'll have to wait a couple of months for that unless you have a new skiing game on your phone."

"I do," Castle admitted, "but that's not the point. While you so skillfully collect your clues, I can soak up the atmosphere. It will make a great setting for a story, maybe a couple of stories from different points of view."

Kate pulled into the parking area surrounding the Woodbourne Correctional Facility, the less restrictive prison in the Sullivan Correctional Facility complex. "This will take me a few hours. You can take the car and soak in whatever you like. I'll call you when I need you to pick me up."

"Deal," Castle agreed, leaning in for a quick kiss before walking around to the driver's side as Kate was leaving the car.

* * *

Kate settled at a hard metal table opposite Solomon Levy, surprised by the prisoner's Latin features.

Sol immediately observed her expression. "You expected the map of Israel on my face, right? With my name, everyone does. My family settled in Cuba just before World War Two. They weren't exactly big on intermarriage, but my grandfather fell in love. He and my grandmother came to the United States when Castro deposed Batista."

"I'm sure your family history is fascinating, Mr. Levy," Kate said, "but that isn't what I came to discuss. You and your partners made a business of breaking into firms with less than perfect firewalls and stealing insider information which was sold to customers who used it for illegal transactions. Those transactions defrauded a lot of innocent investors, people who needed that money to fund their retirements or send their kids to college. My office is trying our best to see what can be done about making them whole again. What I need to know is who did the selling and who did the buying."

"Ms. Beckett, is it?" Kate nodded. "Ms. Beckett, I never saw the face of anyone who hired me, and neither did any of my partners. We were contacted anonymously and paid through numbered account transfer. If I knew identities, don't you think I would have used them to cut a deal? This place is not my idea of a resort."

"Look, Mr. Levy; you can help both of us. Any little detail, anything at all you can remember about how you were contacted or paid, could make a difference."

"There's one thing I told some of the parade of investigators who have come to talk to me before, but no one thought it was important enough to investigate."

Kate leaned over the table. "What?"

I received a couple of phone calls with instructions. They came by VOIP, untraceable, but there was music playing in the background, disco. Who listens to disco anymore?"

"I don't know, Mr. Levy, but I'll check it out."


	48. Chapter 48

Emergence

Chapter 48

Kate slid into the passenger seat after Rick pulled the car up as close as he could to the prison. "Castle, what do you remember about disco?"

"That I had a hopeless crush on Donna Summer and that the hand motions Deney Terrio taught John Travolta for Saturday Night Fever reminded me of worms. Why do you bring that up?"

"With all the time I spent interviewing hackers today, tracking down where the sound of disco came from is the only trail I have to follow."

"So, do I have to get a white disco suit? You know how I hate polyester." Kate's eyebrows hunched toward her nose as her lips pressed together in a tight line. Castle raised a defensive hand. "Alright, seriously, if there's anyone who would know about disco, it would be my mother and Belkin. He leads the Bell-kin, the band who played at our engagement party. Mother is fasting for clarity today, which means she'll be anything but clear. We should talk to Belkin first." Castle pulled his phone out of his pocket and brought up his contact list. "If his band is playing tonight, the gig probably won't start for at least a couple of hours."

Bobby Belkin's yawn was audible through the speaker on Castle's cell. "I'm sorry, Bobby. Musician's hours?"

"Yeah. We played a birthday party for a hundred-year-old woman at a retirement community last night. Can you believe they danced until five A.M.?"

Castle whistled. "Wow. I hope I'm that lively when I get to that age. Listen, my beautiful fiancée, and I need some musical crime-busting assistance. Can you think of a place where someone might hear the sound of disco?"

"Hmm," Bobby mused. "High School reunions of graduates from the seventies. We've played more than a few of those."

"Someplace where it would be playing on a regular basis," Kate put in, "like a club or something."

"There's a club that's being redone for the disco nostalgia crowd, but it hasn't opened yet. How about a store?" Bobby asked. "There's one called That Seventies Shop. My guys and I have had to pick a few things up there. It's on Amsterdam Avenue, around 82nd Street. They blast disco music all the time."

"Thanks, Bobby," Kate said. "That's a start. I'll check it out."

Castle brought up Google on his phone as soon as his call with Belkin ended. "Got it, Kate. That Seventies Shop on Amsterdam Ave. They're open until nine. Even if we grab dinner, we should have plenty of time to pay them a visit."

* * *

Castle and Beckett were led to a table at Disco-Sip, a restaurant across the street from That Seventies Shop. "Listen, Kate. They're piping in the music from the business in question."

"And there are offices upstairs," Kate continued. "Unless this place is soundproofed, the music would come up through the floor. I need to track down the occupants of those offices."

Castle stared at the menu displayed on a board surrounded by flashing lights. "No doubt your office computer network has access to more than adequate databases to allow you to do that in the morning, but right now, this place is a hotpot hotspot. Sweet and savory, chocolate and cheese fondues. Alexis and I used to have fondue nights, but we haven't had one in months. Ooh, and they have those little cocktail wieners with barbecue sauce too. This bill of fare is better than dinner, Kate. This place is a disco dippers paradise."

Kate leaned back, her breasts thrusting against the blouse beneath her conservative suit jacket, and batted her eyelashes. "Immersing your hot dog in something spicy turns you on, Castle?"

Castle gulped. "Maybe we can get our order to go."

* * *

It took Kate very little time to discover that Fakorp leased the offices above Disco Sip. She imagined that some sickie might have considered the name funny. It took the rest of the day and two consultations with Barry Shultz to trace Fakorp to a holding company called The Edison Group. Unfortunately, Edison Group was privately held. The required disclosures of information were minimal at best. The mailing address was merely a mail drop. Kate sighed and filled out the paperwork necessary to officially request the pertinent client record from the mailbox leasing agent. The paperwork required by the N.Y.P.D. paled in comparison to that from the U.S. Attorney's office. As tedious as it was, she understood the necessity of jumping through bureaucratic hoops. One missed step could blow a complex case or tie it up in litigation for years. By the time she finished, her stomach was growling. She'd skipped lunch, breakfast had been early, and the snacking she and Castle did the night before involved very little food. Castle had been putting something in a slow cooker when she left. She could only hope that it wasn't too slow. She texted Castle to let him know she was coming home.

The piquant scent of pulled pork reached Kate's nose before she'd even opened the door of the loft. Martha was standing at the counter drinking a glass of red wine. Alexis was setting the table. It already held a stoneware crock and a platter of corn on the cob. She added place settings and a bowl of coleslaw. "Kate! Right on time. Dad said he just had to finish writing a paragraph."

Knowing how immersed Castle could get in choosing just the right word to polish a sentence, Kate wandered into his office. He was frowning at the screen of his laptop. "I need a new synonym for obstacle. None of the ones in the Thesaurus or my own usually nimble brain are working."

"How about bureaucracy?" Kate suggested.

Castle pushed back his chair from his desk and opened his arms to Kate. "Hard day?" As she came toward him, he pulled her into his lap.

She snuggled against the warmth of the plaid flannel shirt he wore to top his jeans. "Not hard exactly, just frustrating. But they can't all be visits to prisons and throwback watering holes.

Kate's stomach gurgled under Castle's hand. "Grumpy hungry." He stood, setting her back on her feet. "We can fix that. I'm sure that by now my infinitely talented daughter has arranged the flatware to perfection. And we'll want to start dinner before Mother gets much deeper into the Cabernet."

"What about your synonym for obstacle?" Kate asked.

"It will come to me, probably just when I need to pee. Ooh, perhaps an analogy to a zipper that gets caught just when relief is most desperately needed is promising. I'll flesh that out, or get the flesh out, later."

Kate giggled and grabbed a handful of denim covered, very male butt.

Martha nodded and raised her glass when Kate and Rick reached the kitchen. "Everything's ready, Dad," Alexis said. Castle grabbed the wine, half-filled glasses for himself and Kate, and raised his goblet. "To the end of the day's toils and the beginning of the night's wonders."

"Here, here," Martha said, "which reminds me I need to call Donald."

"You two seem to have hit it off, Martha," Kate observed.

"He is a dear," Martha observed, "and It's been a long time since I've known a man who could do a passable Rumba - at least on the dance floor."

Rick and Alexis grimaced simultaneously,

"Grow up! Especially you Richard," Martha admonished. "The old girl's not dead yet. In fact, more alive every minute."

Kate lifted her glass. "To life, Martha."


	49. Chapter 49

Emergence

Chapter 49

Kate sat in the back room of the mail drop, viewing the video monitor displaying the customers accessing their boxes. She was interested in only one customer. The name listed as the contact for the box registered to Edison Group was Robert Smith. Kate shifted in her metal folding chair. The phone number he'd given was to a burner. His email address linked to a site with masked ownership. It would take more paperwork to access the true registrant. It could have been worse. The contact could have said his name was John Smith. His previous appearances had been recorded over, so she had nothing to go on to spot him except for a vague recollection by the clerk that Smith was short and his dark hair was long. That would fit a large chunk of the population of New York, but at least it was something. She was surprised when a woman approached the box, at least she thought it was a woman. The petite figure's clothing was loose and ambiguous enough to disguise her gender, but she had the gentle swing to her hips that women learn, to balance gracefully on high heels. Kate knew that some men affect the motion too, but to her, the object of her surveillance looked feminine. Her height and hair fit the description of Robert Smith. It was possible that the clerk had been fooled.

Kate captured as many images as she could. She might get lucky with facial recognition. In any case, she'd tail the supposed Robert Smith, to see to whom, if anyone, she/he delivered the contents of the box. Kate had parked her car near the exit of the parking area, to facilitate a quick departure. As her quarry left, she hurried to retrieve her vehicle. Kate followed Smith to the Wall Street district, where the box contact parked near an office building but stayed in the car. Parking as far away as she could while still keeping the car in sight, Kate recorded the only identification on the building, the street address.

A man wearing the financial district uniform of a suit and tie, with a head topped by expensively styled hair, looked around cautiously. Kate ducked down in her seat, employing Castle's trick of using her phone to see what was going on. She snapped a picture of Suit and Tie Man as he approached Smith's car and grabbed a thick manila envelope that Smith handed him through the window. As soon as Smith's contact was back in the building, Smith left. Kate followed, to an apartment house in Brooklyn. Smith entered the building using a key. Kate waited until midnight to see if her target would emerge again, but Smith appeared to be in for the night. Wearily, Kate drove back to the loft.

* * *

Castle fidgeted in his chair in the great room. His laptop was across his thighs, but he'd long given up on trying to write anything. Kate had texted that she was on a stakeout and fine, but that didn't keep him from waiting up for her and worrying. He put the computer aside and rose stiffly when he heard the click of her key in the lock."

"Catch the bad guy?" he inquired as cheerily as he could.

"I'm not even sure if it's a guy," Kate confessed, "but I have pictures and an address I can start working on in the morning."

"It is morning," Castle pointed out. "You have to be tired and starved. There are leftovers in the fridge, or you could just go with a stiff drink."

Kate gave a thought to a shot of whiskey, before shaking her head. "I think I just want to collapse into bed. Join me?"

"Soon as I put the old laptop away."

Kate already had most of her clothes off in the minute it took Castle to stow his computer in his office. She pulled on one of Castle's t-shirts."

"Even exhausted, you look better in that than I do," he judged as she slid between the sheets.

"Mm," she mumbled already half asleep. Castle slipped off his own clothes. Rather than take the time to put them away, he laid them on a chair. Climbing into bed, he wrapped his arms around her and spooned, comforted by inhaling the faint scent of her shampoo as he too, drifted off.

* * *

Castle sniffed the air as he awoke. Since he and Kate were still in bed, he assumed that either his mother or Alexis was making coffee. As rarely as Martha indulged in kitchen chores, he guessed it was his daughter. Moving carefully as not to wake Kate, he followed his nose.

Alexis stood at the counter spreading peanut butter on two slices of toast as the coffee brewed. Her hair was tightly plaited in a French braid, and she wore a dark blazer over a shell and a coordinating skirt. Castle smiled at her. "You look natty."

"There's an expo with representatives from Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, most of the other good colleges I've been thinking about except Oxford. I want to make a good impression. I'm not ready to apply yet, but Ashley is. We're both going to pick up whatever information we can. He really has his heart set on Stanford. Both his parents went there. That's where they met. But he's applying to the other schools too, just in case.

"Ashley's a straight A student and a double legacy. He shouldn't have any trouble getting in," Castle asserted. "And I thought your college angst had ebbed a bit after you went to Hudson this summer."

Pushing hard on the knife, Alexis cut her toast in triangles. "It did. But from what we've been hearing, the top schools are tightening up admissions. Everyone has great GPAs. Sometimes even legacies don't matter. They look at your extra-curriculars, your service credits, your work in the community, outside classes - everything. I found out that our valedictorian from last year had to settle for her second-choice."

"What school was that?" Castle asked.

"Cal Tech."

"Really going second class there."

"She wanted MIT, Dad, and she didn't get in. Ashley and I just want to make sure that doesn't happen to us."

The indicator light on the coffee machine flashed that it had finished brewing. Castle filled two mugs and handed one to his daughter. "Alexis, you know I'd love you just as much if you ended up at a community college, right?"

"Yeah, Dad. But the rest of the world wouldn't. And I wouldn't love myself as much either. Going to Hudson last summer may have given me an edge, but I'm not about to blow it."

* * *

Kate's eyelids fought the rays of sunlight that were trying to reach her eyes through the tall window in the bedroom. It was a losing battle. Slowly she gave in and pushed herself up against the bed's tufted backboard. She could hear Castle and Alexis talking in the kitchen. She could also smell peanut butter, immediately reminding her that she'd fallen asleep on a very empty stomach. The door closed behind Castle's daughter, just as Kate shuffled into the kitchen. "What's going on with Alexis?"

"College admissions blues kicking in again. At least she had a few months respite."

Kate grabbed for the peanut butter jar and inhaled.

"Would you like to lick that off a spoon?" Castle inquired. "You have a very talented tongue."

"Castle," Kate protested, "you're making me want to drag you back to bed, and fun as that would be, I just don't have the time. I need to get to the office."

Castle put two slices of bread in the toaster, pushed down the handle and poured a mug of coffee for Kate. "I know. But I want a rain check."

Kate reached for his hand. "Always."


	50. Chapter 50

Emergence

Chapter 50

Kate studied the information in the file she'd assembled after Myrtle Stoppelmoor, aka Robert Smith, was identified by facial recognition. "If I had a name like that I'd rather be called Smith too," she muttered to herself. Myrtle was Brooklyn bred. She'd graduated from Erasmus High School, just before it closed in 1994, and gone on to Brooklyn College. Unfortunately for Myrtle, she'd become part owner of a video store. The rise of Netflix had sent her scrambling for a job, and her occupation was now listed as a courier. She'd played that role the day before, but couriers don't usually use aliases and dress as members of the opposite sex, and there was no indication that she desired to be transgender. Whatever she was transporting from the mailbox to Wall Street was unlikely to be legal. Paging through her file again, Kate decided that further investigation of Myrtle was unlikely to yield anything else useful. And she could do without another Brooklyn stakeout. She decided to move on to her other person of interest.

Kate was surprised that she had yet to identify Myrtle's Client. She'd expected him to turn up in the DMV database. Driving was unnecessary for many denizens of the city, but most residents used the DMV to at least obtain identification cards. It was possible that the man wanted to fly under the radar, or just hated standing in line. She'd figure it out when she tracked him down.

She turned to a listing of the tenants of the building where Myrtle had made her hand off. There seemed to be nothing remarkable about most of them. They were the normal kinds of businesses found in that area of the city. One caught her eye; Reach out Enterprises. The name was no indication of what services they provided. If nothing else, that omission would not promote sales. She checked the web for mentions of the company. Even with the name in quotes, there were still hundreds of citations. That was better than thousands or millions. She began to work her way through the list.

* * *

While Ashley was engaged in serious conversation with a representative from the Stanford admissions office, Alexis wandered around the large hall, surveying the tables set up to offer materials from other prestigious institutions. Her stomach clenched in a way she suspected had nothing to do with the peanut butter she'd had for breakfast. It was romantic to think about going off to school with Ashley, but it was also unexpectedly intimidating. If he made it into Stanford, and she joined him there, she'd be three thousand miles from her father. Her mother was in L.A., but that would still be hundreds of miles away. Even if the redheaded actress lived closer to the university, her presence would be more nerve-wracking than reassuring. Alexis liked to think that her father needed her to keep his life organized, but in fact, she'd always depended on his constant support. Even if she knew there were no monsters under her bed, it was nice to know that her guardian knight was still near at hand to slay any that might show up. His engagement to Kate hadn't changed that. He still always managed to be there whenever Alexis needed him. She wandered over to the display for Columbia and admired the pictures of the campus. It really was a lovely school.

* * *

Kate rubbed her eyes, almost skipping over an entry on a local job board. Reach Out Enterprises was looking for hard-working self-starters with good telephone skills. The address to report for screening matched the one on the building where Myrtle Stoppelmoor had parked. There was an invitation for applicants to apply that afternoon. She checked her watch. She had enough time to get ready.

Brett checked his hair in the mirror he kept in his desk, before inviting the next candidate into his office. She was hot, no question about it. She also looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place her. Her application mentioned she'd done some modeling. That could be how he'd seen her. He had no doubt she could be a model. She had the face and the body for it. He hoped her voice was as appealing. He extended his hand as he motioned Kate into his office. "Ms. Houghton, I'm Brett Paulsey. It's a pleasure to meet you. Please have a seat."

A pleasure to meet you too Mr. Paulsey," Kate purred, settling into Brett's guest chair. "I'm very interested in the job you posted. I'm an extremely hard worker, and I've had phone jobs before."

"Yes, I saw that on your application. What is Rouse All? Some kind of motivational speaker bureau?"

Kate gazed at the floor, willing heat to rise to her face. "Not exactly, but we always tried to make our clients feel uplifted."

Brett's eyes brightened as understanding dawned. "That must have been very - stimulating - work. Ms. Houghton…."

"Kitty," Kate interjected.

"Kitty," Brett continued. "At Reach Out Enterprises, we like to get our clients excited too. We deal in opportunities. For a small investment, our customers can realize huge returns. Our job is to help them understand the exceptional opportunities we offer. Do you believe you can do that, Kitty?"

Kate leaned forward, allowing her skirt to ride up above her knees. "Mr. Paulsey, when I put my mind to it, I can sell someone on just about anything."

"Kitty, I'm sure you can."

* * *

"You told him you'd been a phone sex worker!" Castle exclaimed.

"I didn't tell him that, I just dropped a hint. He drew his own conclusions. I set up a backstory, but I doubt he'll check my references. I almost had to shove his eyes back in his head. Anyway, I'm in," Kate said. "I've already started. I worked part of the evening shift."

"How do you pretend to push questionable investments on unsuspecting consumers?"

"I'll only be expected to make a few sales a day. Some of the staff at my office can stand in for buyers unless of course, you're interested in the opportunity of a lifetime." Kate ran a fingertip over his lips. "I bet I can make you an offer you can't refuse."

"I hope we are no longer talking about investments."

"Depends on what you call an investment, Castle. You put something in, and then you reap the rewards."

"That's the kind of investment I'm willing to make anytime. We could start in the…."

Castle heard Alexis' familiar knock on the bedroom door. "Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?" He looked at Kate.

"She sounds serious, Castle. Go see what's on her mind. I'll be here."

Castle met his daughter in his office. "What's up, Sweetheart?"

"Dad, I was just wondering, what would happen if I pick a school close to home?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that college is supposed to be a time of exploration and independence. If I'm too close, will you give me space? Even if it means letting me make mistakes?"

Castle gazed down at his daughter. "Are we talking about mistakes like choosing the wrong size of refrigerator for your dorm room or mistakes like running off with some self-proclaimed poet who hasn't washed his hair in a month and thinks his art entitles him to spend your money?"

Alexis shrugged, "Maybe both or neither. I just need to find my own way, Dad, whatever that is. And I need to know you'll be okay with that."

"If you're asking if I'll ever be okay with my little girl getting hurt, the answer is no, whether you're eighteen or eighty-eight. But if you're asking if I'll let you choose your own road, I can promise you that I'll do my best to try."

Alexis kissed his cheek. "That's all I'm asking, Dad."

Silk flowing over her curves, Kate emerged from the bathroom to find Castle sitting at the edge of the bed, his chin in his palm. "Something wrong with Alexis, Babe?"

Castle reached for her, running his hands over her softly sleek gown. "Just growing pains, I think. But it looks like Alexis isn't the only one who's going to be doing the growing."


	51. Chapter 51

Emergence

Chapter 51

Kate had decided to work a few hours in her office before beginning her shift at Reach Out, but facial recognition had still not come through with anything on Brett Paulsey. She wondered if the vain salesman had plastic surgery. The next time she was close enough, she'd look for telltale stretched skin and scars. As impossible as it seemed, Google showed no listings for the name Brett Paulsey. If she were going to identify him, she'd need fingerprints. It shouldn't be hard to get them. His office would be empty through most of her shift. If she played her cards right, she should be able to slip in and lift them off the shiny surface of his desk. With luck, she might be able to retrieve his coffee cup from the trash to score both prints and DNA.

Castle had volunteered to be the evening's sales patsy, donating a small amount of money, at least small for him, toward the cause. He'd grinned, suggesting that it might even be tax deductible if he used the transaction as research for a book. Kate had her doubts about that, but she was grateful to Rick for wanting to help. She'd arranged for him to masquerade as one of the people on the call list that Reach Out provided, in the same way, that members of the U.S. Attorney's staff would be playing their parts in her undercover operation.

* * *

Kate arrived a few minutes early to start her stint in the Reach Out boiler room and had to wait for another employee to vacate her station. She took the opportunity to check if Brett Paulsey was in his office. Through the window in his door, she could see him at his desk, but figured she could use one of the minuscule breaks she was allowed, to check again later. She scanned the list of prospects she'd been given. The night before, she'd discerned no pattern to the names, except that they were in alphabetical order. The ratio of men to women seemed roughly equal, and her potential customers were spread across ethnicities. She suspected that Brett Paulsey's method for choosing his targets might have something to do with the envelope he'd received from Myrtle Stoppelmoor. She photographed the list with her phone so that she could search for connections the next day. It was a relief that many of the people on her list didn't answer their phones, or hung up quickly if they did. For the ones who responded, she made sure that her pitch was unconvincing.

During her second and last break, she noticed that Brett Paulsey's office was unoccupied. Making sure she was unobserved, Kate went in. A cardboard cup with the Java Hut logo topped the trash in his wastebasket. Using an evidence bag she'd stowed in the pocket of her frilly jacket, she retrieved it. After a quick walk back to her station to her station, she carefully slipped the cup into the tote bag she'd hung on the back of her chair.

* * *

When Kate returned to the loft, Castle offered her a late-night cup of cocoa. "You look smug," he observed.

"I feel smug," Kate admitted. "I got my hands on some evidence and managed to keep anyone - except you - from being ripped off."

"Being of assistance to the love of my life could never be a rip-off," Castle declared.

"Don't use that line in a book, Castle," Kate counseled. "Your readers will never buy it."

"It was only meant for one reader. And it's true, Kate. You are the love of my life, which brings me to another question. I understand that you won't have time for a honeymoon for a year, but even so, we should start thinking about a date for the wedding. After Mother deluged you with the pile of brides' magazines you have yet to touch, I did some checking. The better venues in Manhattan fill up over a year in advance now, so if we want to snag one, we're going to have to start looking."

Kate sighed. "Castle, I know you're right, but with this investigation, I just don't know if I'll have the time."

"Kate, I'm willing to do the legwork or at least the finger work. Most of those places are viewable online. They post pictures and video. But I'll at least need an approximate date and size of our guest list, to determine what's going to be available." He cradled her cheek in his palm. "Unless you just want to run off to City Hall."

Kate stroked the hand warming her face. "No City Hall, Castle. My Aunt Theresa would never forgive me. And I only plan on getting married once. I want it to be perfect. But I don't think I want the ceremony to be in Manhattan. I saw a picture once; I think I was eight. It was a fall wedding. The bride was glowing in white and she and the groom and their guests were surrounded by trees blazing in incredible colors. It looked magical, like something out of a fairytale. Ever since, that's the kind of wedding, I've always imagined."

Castle pressed a kiss into her palm. "Then that's the wedding you shall have."

* * *

At the desk in his office, Castle sipped his second cup of coffee. Hoping to get some fingerprint results, Kate had headed for her office right after breakfast. After she left, Castle had googled fall colors and immediately found that the task of locating Kate's dream spot, would be complicated. The weather service put out maps showing when leaf colors peaked, but they were only for the present year. Resorts everywhere claimed to have the best of nature's artwork. It would take some heavy research and some luck, to pick exactly the right location to give Kate her childhood dream. Nonetheless, he'd make it happen. His fingers would ferret out the perfect place.

* * *

Kate wished she'd grabbed an hour or two more of sleep. Despite the clout of the U.S. Attorney's office, she'd been informed that it would be at least a few hours until she received her fingerprint results and a day or more before she'd get anything on DNA. She considered leaning back in her chair and catching a nap, but as the new kid on the block, it wouldn't look good, if someone looked in while she was asleep. She sent the list she'd photographed on her phone the night before, to her computer, and began to do a search on the names that appeared on her screen. There were few geographic similarities, but they had all made moves within the past few years to less expensive housing. Perhaps that was the common thread. Someone was gathering information, legally or otherwise, on people who'd had the misfortune to fall on bad times, and would be looking for opportunities to get back on their feet. They might even have been victims of scams, who were pegged as easy marks. Either way, the lists of possible prospects would be a treasure trove for someone like Brett Paulsey, or whoever he really was. She'd overhead the pitches of some of her fellow employees. They were good and unfortunately often effective. People who could afford it the least were being scammed the most, and she suspected that her call center was not the only one. She needed enough evidence to close down the entire operation. The more time that passed, and the more calls that were made, the more victims' hopes would be raised and dashed. She glanced at the time displayed on her screen. Her shift wouldn't start for two hours. She had time to grab a meal before she had to be at her station at Reach Out. She needed something meaty she could dig her teeth into, and she really wanted a strawberry shake.


	52. Chapter 52

Emergence

Chapter 52

Brett Paulsey motioned Kate into his office and waved her to a chair. "Is there a problem, Mr. Paulsey?" she inquired, making sure her blouse gaped open as much as possible.

"Call me Brett, Kitty, and no there isn't. The sale you made last night was a winner. Usually we only get a thousand or two out of customer. Ten thousand was quite a score."

Kate shifted forward in her seat, searching Brett's face for signs of facial surgery. The tiny scars were hidden in his hairline, but she could make them out, and his skin was taut. "Thank you, Brett. I pride myself on a job well done and I'm sure Ricky's investment will pay off."

"Of course, it will," Brett replied too quickly. "And I was wondering if you'd have a drink with me to celebrate your success?"

"What about my shift?"

Brett drew himself up in his chair. "Scheduling is at my discretion, Kitty. If I want to give an employee a little more break time, I can do it. And there's a nice little bar not too far from here. Make the calls from your first page, and I'll come get you when I'm ready to leave for the day. You can come back and finish later."

Kate had been afraid that Brett would view the drink as a prelude to something more intimate, but it seemed that, for the moment at least, he wasn't about to give up on having her talk some other poor saps out their money. She widened her eyes and her smile. "I'd love to have a drink with you, Brett."

* * *

Brett's description of the Archie's Cave as "little," had been accurate. Kate wasn't as sure about the "nice" part. By her estimate, it could not have been more than a thousand square feet, maybe less. The small tables were jammed as close together as possible to make the most of the space, but fewer than half of them were occupied. The lone cocktail waitress squeezed between the surrounding tables. "Hey Brett. What can I bring you and the lady?"

Brett looked inquiringly at Kate. "Cosmo."

"Cosmo for Kitty, Ginny, and the usual for me."

"Right, Cosmo for Kitty," Ginny repeated, "and gin and tonic."

"Sounds like you're a regular," Kate observed as Ginny went to pass the order on to the bartender.

Brett shrugged. "This place is handy, and I haven't heard Ginny get an order wrong yet. I like people who know how to get the job done."

Kate smiled. "I hope I'm one of them. You read my application. You know all about Kitty, so tell me about Brett. How did you get into selling investments?"

Brett's eyebrows moved upward for a fraction of a second, but long enough for Kate to catch his micro-expression. She'd expected it, but now she was sure he was going to lie. "My father was a shoe salesman. He was very good at it. He always made sure the customer got the right fit, especially the kids, you know?"

Kate nodded.

"My Dad sold shoes for twenty years, Then the big stores where people would just try on the shoes themselves started coming in. The store where he worked tried to hold on, but it just couldn't make a go of it against the competition. First, they let my father go, then they closed down altogether. Dad didn't know anything except selling shoes. He had to start over. He'd saved some money, but it wasn't enough. He went through some hard times. Our whole family did. So, I decided there had to be a better way for the little guy to have a nest egg. I started looking around, and I realized just how much money people could make buying stock in great companies that were just starting up. Think how well people who invested in Apple or Amazon at the beginning made out. I've made it my mission to spread the wealth."

"Oh Brett, that is so sweet!" Kate put down her drink and pushed her chair back as far as it would go in the cramped space. "I'm going back to Reach Out right now and try to help as many people as I can to build their nest egg."

"You don't have to hurry. You should finish your drink."

Kate shook her head. "No. Our work is too important. I'll see you tomorrow, Brett."

* * *

Castle slapped his palm against the table at the loft where he and Kate were sharing a late-night snack. "Kate, you are amazing! Not only did he think you fell for his story, you gave yourself the perfect excuse to get away from him. That was brilliant!"

"Mm, but that trick will only work once. I'll need to wind this thing up before Brett wants to do more than share a drink."

"Ah, but you can always have a poor sick auntie you need to get home to. I don't look bad in a flowered bonnet."

Kate barely avoided spitting out a grape. "I'm sure you look terrific, Castle. I suppose that's as good an excuse if any if I need one. But I should have more information on Brett Paulsey tomorrow, so Kitty Houghton's tenure at Reach Out Enterprises will be short. What's your day been like?"

"Interesting actually, aside from finding out more about Fall color than I thought there was to know, I got a look at some of the first art for the Nikki Heat graphic novel. No comic could truly do justice to your exquisite features, but it was pretty good. I think I'm going to see if the artist can make Rook's biceps bigger, but I think the project will fly. The story wasn't bad either. It was based on one of the first murders we solved together. Remember the smuggler who hid the passports in the knockoff bags?"

"Hard to forget that one, considering we both almost got killed. Are they putting in that thing you did with the champagne cork?"

"My modesty almost prevented me from mentioning that to the writer, but yes." Kate rolled her eyes. "Having Heat and Rook hunker down in that kitchen will be very visual," Castle continued. "I didn't mention Meredith, though. No need to bring in an unnecessary character."

"Or being called 'Kitten,'" Kate added. "You know Castle, I really thought you were going to ask me to sleep with you in exchange for saving my life."

"God! I'd made enough of a mistake by having sex with the deep fried Twinkie. If I'd asked you into my bed, you might have killed me on the spot."

"No, just shot you someplace non-fatal but exquisitely painful."

Castle shuddered. "Anyway, a character based on Meredith couldn't hold a candle to Nikki Heat, so why bring her into it? And like me, Rook will eventually realize who's the woman of his dreams."

A yawn forced itself from Kate's throat. "Speaking of dreams. I'm going to knock off. Join me?"

"How could I not? I'll clean this up and be right in. I haven't started the dishwasher yet."

Kate yawned again and began to wander toward the bedroom. "Okay."

As soon as Kate disappeared, Castle reached up to the highest shelf in the kitchen, pulled out a familiar box of snack cakes and jammed them in the trash can. After staring down at the cream and crumbs leaking from the smashed box, he buried the evidence in the scrapings from the meal he'd shared with Kate, and slammed the lid.


	53. Chapter 53

Emergence

Chapter 53

Kate examined the file that had arrived with the fingerprint results on Brett Paulsey, aka George Burnum, aka Steve Haley, aka a half dozen others. Her erstwhile boss had been suspected of fraud in seven other states, but had always managed to escape before a strong enough case could be built to hold him. Operations like his kept popping up. It had been suspected that he wasn't the only one involved, but if he had a partner, or more than one, they had yet to be unmasked. The man was good. Kate studied the photo Brett had taken as George Burnum. He'd looked older then, but a facelift had remedied that. There had been other procedures too. The nose was different, and the cheeks hadn't been as full. No doubt he had implants now. His hair was different too. The changes had been enough to confuse facial recognition and make him prettier, if no less slimy. With no actual want out on the man, she'd have to make a case of her own, before he could be arrested. That would mean that he'd have to complete at least one phony transaction. Castle was at the top of the list. The amount the largest, moving it up a degree in seriousness as a crime. Unfortunately, it was possible that Brett could claim entrapment since the ersatz sale would never have taken place without Kate. She needed to catch Brett scamming on his own. She'd heard that he occasionally took a shift when one of his employees was ill or quit. If he could be pinned down doing that, she'd have him. One of her co-workers had looked fluish the night before. Much as she hated to wish that misery on anyone, Kate crossed her fingers that he wouldn't show up.

* * *

Greg Howarth had called in sick. Normally Brett would have been upset. Greg's sales were near the top of the leaderboard, and his absence would mean a dip in revenues. But Greg manned a station only two desks away from Kitty's. If Brett filled in for the sadly ailing Greg, he could spend the time close to her, a situation that would not be unappealing. Maybe he could even take her out somewhere after the shift; somewhere nicer than Archie's Cove. The more he thought about it, the more excited he was for the next shift to begin. It could be a good night.

* * *

Castle was restless. He'd finished the chapter he'd been writing. He'd been planning to have a father and daughter night out at the movies with Alexis, but his daughter's Mathletics coach had called an extra practice session for an upcoming competition. Kate was undercover at Reach Out, nothing on a thousand channels called to him, and Terra Quest was down for maintenance. He'd considered trying to hunt up a poker game, but he wasn't in the mood. He'd been picturing a villain as a chess master, not so much on an actual board, but as a strategist. A few games of chess could be helpful, and something to do until Kate came back. There was a gaming parlor only two blocks away where there was always someone ready for a game. The coffee was good too.

* * *

Kate could feel Brett's eyes on her. There were noise barriers between the stations, but he could see her if he stretched or moved his chair back, which he seemed to be doing a lot. There was a good chance that she would have to come up with Castle's sick auntie or some other reason to go straight home after her shift. Before she did, she needed to get a look at the names Brett was calling, not only so she'd be able to get something on him but to keep his marks from losing their money. The way he was drinking coffee, he'd need a men's room sooner or later, and as the boss, he wouldn't have to stick to the approved break times.

* * *

Castle met up with an opponent he'd faced before. Rick couldn't put an age on Farley Moorhead. The wiry salt and pepper hair that covered his head and most of his face, disguised whatever crevices age had carved. He could have been fifty or eighty. His crystalline blue eyes missed nothing, and his mind hadn't lost a beat. Castle didn't expect to win, but that was fine. Playing against Farley was always enlightening.

The older man seemed a little distracted that night, almost flubbing a move. Castle asked if there was anything wrong, and Farley confessed that he was worried about his granddaughter. Growing up, she'd been fascinated by weddings. At college, she'd double majored in business and design. She could have taken a job working somewhere, using either one, but was determined to build her own business as a wedding planner. She was having trouble finding clients and Farley was afraid she'd be defaulting on her loans. He would have loved to help, but she was determined to make it on her own.

"I'm familiar with stubborn, independent women," Castle sympathized. "In at least one case, intimately so, but that leads me to a solution for your problem. My beautiful fiancée and I just happen to be planning a wedding. We could use the services of a savvy and determined planner. A reference from a best-selling author wouldn't hurt your granddaughter's credentials either."

"It sure wouldn't," Farley agreed, fishing a card out of the pocket of his lumberjack shirt and handing it to Castle. "Give her a call. Just tell her you saw her website or something. She doesn't need to know you talked to me."

Castle made a zipping motion across his mouth. "I always keep my sources confidential."

Farley returned to the game and checkmated Castle in five moves.

* * *

It seemed like forever to Kate until Brett left his station. As soon as he'd disappeared into the restroom, she groaned as if her leg was cramping and made a show of stomping around between the desks. Leaning on the barrier of Brett's station for support, she blocked the view of her phone while she snapped a picture of his call list. Bending over, she slipped her phone back into her pocket and massaged her calf for a moment before going back to her own station. Brett smiled at her when he returned to his fill-in spot, and Kate tried her best to nod pleasantly before resuming her work.

When the clock ticked to the end of the shift, Brett came to Kate's desk and put a hand on her shoulder. "We're both finished for the night. I know a great place that specializes in late suppers."

Kate longingly looked back at him. "Brett, I'd love to, but my aunt lives alone. When I talked to her earlier, it sounded like the flu that hit Greg was hitting her too. And you know with old people, flu can turn into pneumonia. There's a neighbor who can look in on her now and then, but I thought I'd stay with her for a few nights, just to make sure she's all right." Kate fluttered her lashes. "As much as you feel for people, I know you understand."

Brett fisted his fingers inside the pocket of his jacket. "Yes of course I do. Give your aunt my best, Kitty. I hope she recovers very soon."

Kate lightly touched his arm, feeling the tension through the fabric of his jacket. "I knew you would, Brett. Have a good night."

As she waited for the subway, Kate grinned. She couldn't help picturing Castle with a red nose, a thermometer in his mouth, and a flowered nightcap.


	54. Chapter 54

Emergence

Chapter 54

Brett looked up in surprise, from the table in an interview room at the offices of the U.S. Attorney's office. "Kitty, what are you doing here?"

"Sorry Brett, it's not Kitty, it's Kate, Kate Beckett. And I work here."

The table vibrated as Brett pounded it with his fist. "Damn! You played me! I knew you looked familiar. You're the bitch that hack writer based his books on. Bet you go to bed with him."

"He's not a hack; he's a best-selling author. And considering that he's my fiancé, if I do go to bed with him, it will be the highlight of my night. But unmasking scum like you comes in a pretty good second. I investigated you. That's my job. If you hadn't been trying to take advantage of unfortunate dupes who were just trying to keep their heads above water, I would have had nothing to investigate. But you weren't selling security, Brett. You were selling disaster. You've been ruining your victims for a long time. You deserve to be put away. Who knows? You may find your soulmate in prison in some buff guy who loves to lift weights and show off his tattoos."

Brett grimaced and crossed his arms across his chest. "No one is putting me behind bars. I want a lawyer."

"You're going to need one."

* * *

When Ruby Moorhead met Castle at the loft, he immediately recognized Farley's eyes shining from her face. He invited her to sit at the table, where she regarded the pictures of colorful forest glens, he'd laid out, along with his list of the other elements he deemed essential to fulfill Kate's vision for their dream wedding. "I usually do this with the bride, but you're very well-prepared Mr. Castle."

"Unfortunately, this is not my first rodeo, Ms, Moorhead," Castle admitted. "And Kate, my fiancée, is heroically employed saving vulnerable citizens from ruin, but she's told me what she needs to make her perfect day. So, you and I will be making that miraculous event occur. And you can call me Rick."

"And call me Ruby." She surveyed the colorful images. "Looks like Kate wants an Autumn wedding. Are we talking next Fall, Rick?"

Castle nodded. "Next September or October, whenever we can snag a spot where the color is in its full glory."

Ruby nodded. "Mm. We're probably talking Upstate, or maybe even New England. If you want it outside, it could be cold. You never can tell with the weather these days. You'll need a rain contingency, too. But we can take care of that with portable heaters and a tent, or an inflatable building."

"Definitely a tent," Castle decided. "Kate wants magical, and somehow I don't think the sound of a blower motor would suit her imaginings."

"The crystal in Ruby's eyes twinkled. No, I don't suppose it would. So, magical, dreamlike. The music would have to fit in with that theme. So, would the clothes for the wedding party. How about the reception?"

Castle stroked his chin. "Kate never mentioned that part. We just talked about the wedding. But I don't think she'd want to break the mood."

"You should check with her about it as soon as you can," Ruby advised. "But for now, we'll say a continuation of fall colors for table linens and decorations. Unless we stage it in the tent, you'd want a rustic locale, maybe a lodge constructed of native timber."

"But no animal heads up on the walls," Castle cautioned. "Kate hates those." He glanced over at the cold fireplace he'd planned to light later. "But an old-fashioned stone hearth would be in the spirit of things. And candles. Kate loves candles. Or maybe a path lit by those candles in paper bags. What do you call those?"

"Luminaries. I'd have to check on fire conditions and regulations for something like that, but if luminaries are on the prohibited list, some lovely lanterns can create a similar effect. Or we could string fairy lights. There are solar and battery powered ones that come in harvest colors."

"Fairy lights," Castle repeated. "Ruby, I like how you think!"

Ruby cleared her throat. "Rick while we're brainstorming here, I need to have some idea of your budget. What you've been describing won't come cheap."

"Not a problem. Whatever it takes to make Kate happy."

"Rick, you just made my job, a lot easier."

* * *

Bart McDonald, attorney at law, faced a sullen Brett Paulsey. He'd double checked that any microphones had been turned off, and there were no cameras, but in the end, it wouldn't matter if he and his client were overheard. The U.S. Attorney had her case. There was nothing Paulsey could say that would make that any worse. But Elizabeth Weston's assistant had made it very clear that there was something Paulsey could do to make his future more bearable. That would be to flip on whoever was in on the scam with him. There was no way Brett would be let off the hook entirely. There were too many counts against him, and Weston's people were finding more with every hour that passed. The best deal Bart could hope to make, would be for a recommendation for a reduced sentence in a lower security facility. But at least that was something. He'd be covering Paulsey's ass in more ways than one. He squared his subtly padded shoulders. "Mr. Paulsey, this is your situation."

* * *

To prepare for her testimony, Kate was documenting every detail of her time at Reach Out Enterprises. She heard the sound of footsteps and looked up to see Elizabeth Weston. "You did it, Kate. Not only is Brett Paulsey out of business, but he also gave us his partners and all their operations. Some of the records we've seized cover their illegal enterprises outside of New York. You did a great job! I guess Kitty Houghton can retire now."

Kate pushed her hair behind her ear. "I think I'll keep her on the reserve list. I might need her again sometime. But right now she's got an aunt that needs some attention."

Weston's eyebrows rose.

"Never mind," Kate said. "Just some silly stuff between Castle and me."

"Tell Mr. Castle we're grateful for his help. You put in a lot of hours on this case. You've earned at least a couple of days of comp time if you want them."

"I do have some personal business I'd like to get into."

Kate paged through the Beckett-Castle wedding binder Ruby Moorhead had put together. Everything was there; potential venues, color schemes, musical choices, and sample invitations. There was also a checklist for her to pick her favorite options in every category. "This is amazing, Babe."

"Much as I'd love to take the credit, I cannot. The glory all belongs to wedding planner extraordinaire, Ruby Moorhead. It was inevitable that the granddaughter of the only person who regularly defeats me at chess would be a master or should I say, mistress, at laying out a nuptial battle plan. And I thought as long as you're taking a short pause in your own war - on crime - we could take a little tour of Ruby's top picks for woodland wonders. Alexis is going to be out of town at a math competition, so the timing would be perfect. What would you say to imagining yourself as a wood nymph?'

"If I'm going to be a wood nymph, what would you be?"

Castle blew a riff on an invisible pipe. "Why a faun of course – but without the Nijinsky leaps or the goat smell. We can gambol through the leafy glades together, seeking the perfect setting for our eternal joining."

Kate leaned in for a kiss. "Castle, you're on."


	55. Chapter 55

Emergence

Chapter 55

While waiting in the lobby, Kate gazed at the roughhewn walls of the Winthrop Lodge. "Castle, this is majestic."

"I know right," Castle agreed. "It's even better than it was in the pictures."

A maroon haired woman hurried to the front desk. "Can I help you guys?'

Castle cleared his throat and extended his hand. "Richard Castle and my beautiful bride-to-be Kate Beckett; we have an appointment with a Ms. Adams to discuss the lodge as a possible site for our nuptials."

Castle's hand was shaken vigorously. "Right. I'm Ophelia Adams. Nice to meet you, Mr. Castle, Ms. Beckett." She tapped an old-fashioned bell, and a young man appeared from an adjoining room. "Trace, watch the front, will you?" Ophelia gestured for Rick and Kate to follow her as she led the way into a gleaming modern kitchen, and pointed to a built-in booth. "Have a seat. I need to get my notes. I'll just be a sec."

Castle regarded the hanging copper-clad cookware, the large commercial ovens, and the massive stove. "Not exactly what I expected."

"Did you think they'd have a soup cauldron hanging in the fireplace, Castle?" Kate asked. "We were thinking about having our reception here and putting up some of our guests. It's good to see that they have the kind of facilities that can handle that."

"Yeah, but talk about anachronisms. It's like having the Pilgrims arrive and find a Tesla parked on Plymouth Rock. I definitely want to see what the rooms look like. And we need to reconnoiter your fairy forest."

Ophelia trotted back, carrying a laptop. She took a seat in the booth with them and flipped up her screen. I see that you are considering a ceremony in Oakwood Grove. There's path leading there from the lodge. You're thinking about a reception in Hancock Hall, and you expect most or all of our rooms to be reserved for your guests."

"That's correct," Castle confirmed. "And we'll be needing a complete tour."

Ophelia snapped her laptop shut. "Of course. Who wouldn't? I can take you around the lodge first; then we can go to the grove." She slid out of the booth again, leaving her computer behind. "Please follow me." Ophelia ushered Rick and Kate up a wide wooden staircase. "We have an elevator, to accommodate any guests uncomfortable with climbing stairs," Ophelia explained, "but you can get a great view of the room below from here." She continued upward to the landing and started down a wood-paneled hallway. "We have three sizes of rooms, and there are connecting doors between them for families. I can show you one of each." She pulled a metal key out of her pocket and held it up. "We still use these. They fit in better than computerized locks would with the atmosphere of the place - except for the kitchen of course. We need the modern equipment to turn out the volume of food required for banquets and receptions. But the guests never see it, so it doesn't mess with the ambiance." She pushed open a door. "This is one of our grand bedchambers."

Kate's breath caught at the sight of a huge four-poster bed topped with a thick quilt and bolsters. "This is lovely."

Ophelia pointed into the bathroom. "All the facilities are up to current codes, but we've tried to harmonize them with the historical feel of the lodge," Kate noted the large tub and the sink styled to look like an old-fashioned wash basin. "All the rooms have free wi-fi too," Ophelia added. "Most of our guests don't want too much isolation from civilization. I'll show you the other two chambers."

While smaller, the other two rooms Ophelia opened were similar in decor. Kate could see curling up with Castle in any of them. While some of her cousins and friends from her old biker days might like something edgier, all the guests would have everything they needed.

After descending the stairs, Ophelia showed the way to Hancock Hall. It was larger than Castle had pictured it. He suspected that if he shouted something, it would echo. The floors were covered in oak planks, and the tables were crafted of the same golden wood. A large stone fireplace was at one end, and the electric lighting was reminiscent of oil lamps, without the soot or the stench. "We have a relationship with a florist who can supply whatever flowers you want, or you can choose your own floral designer," Ophelia explained. "We contract with a table linens supplier who features a wide variety of color schemes, including the Fall colors you indicated you preferred." She motioned toward a door at the end of the room where the fireplace was. "We can go out that way to get to Oakwood Grove." An electric cart was parked at the entrance to a wide, gravel-topped path into the woods. "It's about a quarter of a mile to the grove. You can walk or ride. We can provide assistance to any guests with mobility issues."

"We'll walk," Kate decided. Castle reached for her hand as they followed Ophelia. Oak trees in the midst of achieving full color, towered over them as they made their way down the path. The path ended suddenly at a large opening in the trees, which could easily accommodate several hundred celebrants, with or without a tent. A blue sky with wisps of clouds and a daylight moon was visible above.

"As I understand it, you want the time of your wedding closer to dusk. We have a number of lighting options, and we do our best to keep the mosquitoes down, but for the comfort of your guests, you might want to make sure that they are all inside the lodge before it gets too dark," Ophelia advised.

Castle found himself rethinking luminaries and fairy lights, but he'd still keep Kate's candles in the mix for the reception.

"If you're going to book with us for next September or October, you don't have much time to wait before reserving your date," Ophelia cautioned the couple after they had returned to the lodge. "Our schedule fills up fast. Some couples stay for a night - courtesy of the innkeeper - to experience the Winthrop Lodge vibe while they're thinking over their decision. We have a grand bedchamber available for this evening, unless you'd prefer two rooms."

"One would be fine," Kate said.

"Fine. If you join us for dinner, it will give you a chance to evaluate our chef," Ophelia suggested. "You can try any of our specialties, or she can prepare a sampler dinner for you."

Castle's eyes met Kate's in silent agreement. "A variety would be very nice, Ms. Adams, Castle responded. "We're going to explore the area, but we were planning to settle somewhere for the night. We can return here."

Ophelia nodded, "Awesome! I'll set that up, and we'll see you later."

* * *

Kate snuggled into Castle's chest under high thread count sheets and a wedding ring quilt. Castle smoothed her hair. "This place is an interesting melding of the traditional and modern," he observed. "Like Ophelia. Colonial and millennial. An intriguing mix."

"Castle we're planning our wedding. Don't tell me you've been checking out another woman."

"Only as a character." Rick kissed the top of Kate's head. "The only woman I'm interested in is right here."

"Good. Because before we decide on whether to book this place, we really have to test out this bed."

Castle grinned. "Let the experiments begin!


	56. Chapter 56

Emergence

Chapter 56

"Why the Sharpei brow?" Castle asked as Kate stared into the espresso they were sharing after dinner at the loft. "I would have thought that with our wedding date and venue settled, and Ruby handling all the peskiest details, there would be a little less furrowing going on."

"It has nothing to do with the wedding, Castle. It's my new case. You probably know more about what I'm investigating than I do."

Castle felt Kate's forehead. "No fevered delirium. What has caused you to reach that momentous conclusion?"

"It's about publishing. Specifically, a very large bookseller manipulating the prices publishers can charge for e-books. We're trying to figure out if there's an anti-trust violation going on, or they're acting just within the limits of legality."

"I know you can't tell me, but I'll assume you're talking about Nile, largest bookseller in the world and a publishing giant. They set a price ceiling for any of the e-books on their electronic app. Black Pawn has been lamenting it for years. It's difficult to sell a hardcover for $26.99 when someone can download it for less than ten bucks. Most of the publishers have been claiming that it lowers the value of books in general, but they're stuck. They're free to sell off their own website, or with click-throughs from the author's website, but almost everyone starts a search on Nile. Nile is controlling pre-orders too, which is how publishers, especially small ones, cover their initial costs for a book, and Nile is encouraging authors to move away from traditional publishers in general. With a little help from Nile, they can put out a book themselves and more than triple their royalties. I have to admit, I've considered dropping Black Pawn a couple of times myself, and doing just that. It's just that I'd have to line up editing, distribution, and publicity myself, or hire people to do it, and I'd rather give that headache to Gina. Strangely enough, I think she enjoys it. My poker buddies also think that when the traditional publishers are dropped from the game, Nile will just start squeezing authors. The royalties will drop and like the world's longest river, our revenues will flow backward.

"So, if I understand what you're telling me, a super bookseller slash publisher, is not so much a monopoly, as it is like a big box store that pushes mom and pop sellers out of business," Kate recapped.

"More than that, they're putting the screws to the producers of what mom and pop want to sell."

"Hmm," Kate mulled, "I'll need to sit down with Liz Weston and talk more about this, but thanks for clarifying the picture, Babe."

"Except for the effect that the subject matter may have on my bottom line, always a pleasure to come to the aid of my bride to be. You want some cookies to go with the espresso?"

"Right now, I desperately need the ones dipped in dark chocolate."

"One chocolate fix, coming up!"

* * *

Elizabeth Weston tapped her pen against the surface of the conference table. "With the addition of what Kate has shared with us of Richard Castle's expertise, I believe we can conclude that the only way we could go at Nile is in the area of price-fixing, and even that would be problematical. While Nile has set a top price for e-books, they haven't artificially inflated the cost, which is what the law is designed to guard against. What we'd need to do, rather than attacking this from a prosecutorial angle, is make it clear to the public that their choices will potentially be limited, and allow the power of the crowd to push for legislation to protect the little guy. To say the least, it wouldn't be easy. So far similar efforts have failed in other arenas. Malls and smaller retailers are shutting down all over the country, and so far, there has been no recourse. I have grave doubts that this matter can be successfully pursued."

"I'd like to give it a shot," Kate said. "What we need to find, is someone who is being hurt, who can capture the public's imagination. And if we can get the press on board, we may have something. I've seen bad actors that law enforcement agencies couldn't touch, brought down by a compelling story. I think we all have."

"Very well," Weston agreed. "I'll give you a month to see what you can turn up Kate, but if you don't find anything promising, we'll have to drop the matter."

"Yes Ma'am," Kate agreed.

* * *

"Looking for small booksellers in Southern District territory who are being impacted by Nile? Oh, Kate! You are talking about a safari into my hunting grounds. Just the hours spent on Canal street alone, caressing the treasured volumes, inhaling the scent of paper, sneezing black from the dust; those literary journeys have informed my entire being." Castle pressed his hand to his chest. "Allow me to be your guide," he implored.

"Castle, you can spare me the drama. I was going to ask you anyway." She looked at her watch. "Six-thirty. Most of the stores in that area are open from eleven to seven. They'd be closed down by the time we could get there. Can we go tomorrow?"

"That would be great! And we could do lunch in Chinatown. I know the perfect place."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Of course, you do."

Castle continued unfazed. "That leaves the whole evening in front of us, spread wide with possibilities. What would you like to do?'

"Actually, Ruby emailed me a bunch of pictures of wedding dresses to look at. I thought I'd spend some time going through them."

"Trying to find a match for the one in your vision?"

"Uh-hmm. I wouldn't mind if you looked at them with me," Kate confessed. "You're the one who's good at filling in the details in imaginary scenarios."

"I'm hoping that was a compliment. And I would be happy to look at pictures of wedding dresses with you. Should I also be looking at tuxes, or did you have some other image of groomly garb in mind?"

Kate pressed her fingertips to her lips. "You're going to laugh."

Castle held up his hand. "I won't. I promise."

"I pictured the groom in a velvet jacket, a warm brown, to harmonize with the reds and golds of the leaves."

Castle bit the inside of his lip. "Okay, I imagine my tailor can manage that -without making my butt look fat."

Kate grabbed a handful of the spot in question. "You know your booty is my wonderland. Your tailor doesn't have to hide a thing."

"Which only makes me love you more. How about the groomsmen?'

"I never pictured them. I didn't see the bridesmaids either. Just the bride and the groom."

"Well, that gives both of us some leeway. Lead on to the photographic bridal boutique."

Kate cleared the screen in disgust. "I know Ruby is working hard, practically searching the universe, but none of these were right, Castle."

"Kate, could you sketch what you want? We could hire someone to make it. Mother knows some fabulous designers. They have people who can run up anything."

Kate sighed. "Art has never been one of my talents, Castle. You were the one who would draw on the murder board."

Castle stroked her cheek. "Hey, we found the perfect place for the fairies to employ their paintbrushes. The universe will reveal the path to your dress."

A/N Yeah, yeah, I stole a line from Gina Torres.


	57. Chapter 57

Emergence

Chapter 57

The shelves of Cleeson's Books, Old and New, rattled as the garbage truck drove by. Kate saw the corner of a book she hadn't noticed before, peek out at her. Curious, she pulled the slim volume free, and it opened it. Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. "Castle!"

Rick turned from the vintage mystery section. "Kate! What's wrong?"

"Absolutely nothing is wrong, Babe. In fact, everything is perfect. Come, look at this." Holding out the book, Kate pointed to a photograph of a painting of a bride and groom standing in a forest clearing alight with color. "This is the wedding I dreamed about Castle. I must have seen this painting somewhere." She tapped on the image of the bride who was standing next to a lovestruck groom wearing a brown velvet jacket. "And this is the dress that's been in my mind all these years."

Castle regarded the image. "The dress is spectacular, Kate." He tilted his head for a better look. "I think the groom even looks a little like me."

Kate squinted at the photo. "Yeah, maybe he does."

"It has to be fate!" Castle declared. "We have to buy the book! Who knows what else is in there? Maybe the groom was an ancestor of mine. It could be a clue to who my father is."

Castle grabbed the book from Kate's hand and ran to the register. The store's owner immediately recognized Castle's face. "How are my books selling?" Castle inquired.

"To tell you the truth, Mr. Castle" the proprietor confided, "I don't order many of them anymore. People wander in here, read the blurb on the jacket and maybe a page or two. The ladies admire your picture. Then they pull out their phones and order your book from Nile. I can't compete on the pricing, especially if they just download the text. Sometimes they already have it on the Nigle app on their phones by the time they leave the store. If it weren't for scouting auctions and estate sales for books like the one you just bought, I wouldn't be able to keep this place afloat."

"That's a shame," Castle said. "What about the city's other purveyors of the written word?"

"As far as I know, we're all in the same boat. Some of us get together for a coffee every few months, and aside from what new releases are coming out and what collections might be coming on the market, the Nile problem is pretty much all we talk about. We've lost two stores around here just in the past six months. A few of us have put in coffee bars and started to stock specialty pastries just to lure customers in, but there are health department complications that come with selling food. Sometimes it's not worth the effort. If things go on this way, there won't be an independent bookstore left, and the chains won't fare much better." Listening intently to the conversation, Kate leaned against Castle's shoulder. Castle put his arm around her. "This is my exquisite bride to be, and ace investigator, Kate Beckett."

"Ah, your Calliope, muse of writing. I certainly could use a student of Apollo right now."

"What else could you use, Mr. Cleeson?" Kate asked. "What would help keep your business and the other ones like it from going down the tubes?"

"I don't speak for anyone but myself, Ms. Beckett. But I have noticed that when someone buys an ink on paper book that they can hold in their hands and read without worrying about their batteries dying, there is a pride of ownership attached. No one ever reads the legal gobbledygook they to agree to with a swipe on a mobile device, but if they did, they'd know that they don't actually own those books they download, at least not the ones from Nile for their Nigles or Nigle apps. They just pay for the right to read them. If there were a big flashing warning with every download, or a public service campaign or something, maybe readers would realize just how much their access to books and their ability to share them, is being limited. I don't know if that would save us, but it would be a start."

Kate nodded slowly. "Thank you for the information, Mr. Cleeson. And thank you for finding the book Castle just bought, too. It's going to give life to a dream."

"That's what books do, Ms. Beckett," Cleeson replied. "That's what they do."

* * *

"Kate sipped smoky Lapsang Souchong tea from a delicate cup in Castle's favorite hole in the wall Chinese restaurant, inhaling the warm vapors. "This is just what I needed, Castle."

"Wait until you taste the food. It is amazing. No substitutions of onions for more expensive vegetables. Homemade noodles. A treat for the palate and a lift to the spirits."

"My spirits were already by lifted by finding that book, Castle, especially after you sent a photo of the dress to your mother's costume mistress, and she said she could handle making it, no problem. Now we just need to do something for Mr. Cleeson. His idea for a warning to consumers concerning downloads was not bad, but it will take a lot more than the brainstorm of a bookstore owner to get it going. I'll interview the other booksellers on the list he gave us, but that will still only be a start. If there is ever a court-ordered remedy or a legislative one, it will still take a long time."

But informing readers, or at least some readers doesn't have to take that long. How about a series of articles about benighted booksellers, from best-selling author Richard Castle? I'd feature Cleeson and some of the others you'll be interviewing. That's what you wanted, right? To find real people who are being hurt by Nile's machinations and put their stories out there? The Ledger owes me a favor. It will publish them. With any luck, the series will be syndicated. Even if it isn't, I can put links to the online versions of the articles on my website and do some guest blogs for book sites. We can create a meme that's a picture of a story on a Nigle, with a blurb like 'You don't own this!' I can post links to our whole campaign on Twitter. My fans will retweet. Other authors will jump on the bandwagon too. They'll love it! We enlist Weston's 'power of the crowd,' you mentioned.'"

"That could work, Castle. Cleeson's list is a good starting point, but I'll interview as many people associated with selling books as I can. Maybe you can come along for some of that, or go with me to revisit the ones most likely to capture the sympathy of the public."

"Of course, I'll go with you to interview anyone you like, Kate. The more heart-wrenching the tale, the easier it will be to sell. But let's not get so caught up with this that we drop the ball on the wedding. Even the most talented wielder of needle and thread needs measurements and fittings."

Kate reached past the teapot, to grasp Castle's hand. "Now that I found the dress, I wouldn't miss a fitting for anything, Rick. No matter how caught up I get in this case, I can never forget about our wedding."

Castle leaned across the table for a kiss. "Neither can I."

A/N Guest, I can't speak for other fanfic writers, but I have always referred to Gina, as Castle does, as his publisher. I have Black Pawn employing editors. They are not one and the same, although concerning my book, _Dark Awakening_ , from Snow Leopard, (plug, plug), both my publisher and my editor suggested revisions. Most of the suggestions, however, came from the editor.


	58. Chapter 58

Emergence

Chapter 58

Castle used the magnifying app on his phone to carefully examine every square millimeter of the painting in the book Kate had discovered, especially the face of the groom. There were definite similarities to his own. The eyes and nose were the same shapes. The mouth wasn't quite as full, nor the jaw as long, but then Alexis's face was a lot rounder than his own. He began to scan the printed pages looking for some reference to the origin of the groom. The name he was given was John Nolan. John had been the third son, and thus expected to go into the military. He had in fact served as a spy behind enemy lines. At the close of the war in which he'd been engaged, he'd returned home and become a constable. He'd met his bride, Katherine Shaheen when he'd rescued her from drunken ruffians who had been intent on forcing their attentions upon her. As it turned out, the lady had also played a part in her rescue, using a sharp knee to take down two of her attackers, before John had arrived. John had been smitten by both her beauty and her spirit, and the two had married. The union had produced four sons, with Katherine tragically perishing in childbirth with the last one. John had never remarried, raising the boys on his own. According to the story, they became fine young men, honoring their mother's memory and making their still grieving father proud. The tale ended there.

"Nolan," Castle muttered to himself. The name didn't seem familiar. Using the big screen in his office, he viewed a Castle family tree Alexis had constructed, using what information she had been able to glean from his mother and a genealogy site. There were no Nolans among the carnies and flimflammers on the Rodgers side of the family. But of course, there was a missing branch. Could his father have been a Nolan? Could Castle be following in the steps of an ancestor, falling for a brave and beauteous Katherine? He needed to find out. But other things would have to take priority. He'd promised Kate that he'd accompany her on some of her interviews. One of those would be that late that morning. He would also be attending Alexis's violin recital that night and calming her frayed nerves before she performed. In between, he'd have to get some of his contracted writing done and start outlining the articles he needed to write for Kate. It would be a busy day, but hopefully a good one.

* * *

"Don't pull in your stomach!" Hildy Conway ordered as she wrapped a tape measure around Kate." If I make the waist on the dress too tight, you won't be able to eat anything at the reception, and you could faint going down the aisle. Your gown will be comfortable and beautiful. Just work with me."

"I am," Kate insisted. "I just have very flat abs. I work out a lot."

"So, do most of the actresses I work with. But you can't contract those muscles forever, no matter how buff you are. You wouldn't believe the number of ingenues I've seen try. So, take a breath and loosen up. You will be a happier bride if you're not struggling for air. You'll be able to give your husband a longer kiss, too." Hildy added. Kate took a deep breath and Hildy rechecked her measurement. "Okay, that's better."

Kate stared in a triple mirror as Hildy fitted muslin over her body. She'd never had a dress made for her before. Her parents had offered, for her senior prom, but she'd decided to skip the event in favor of a poetry slam. Her Nona cooked, but her sewing had been a disaster, as was Kate's mother's. Kate had taught herself to sew on a button and fix a ripped seam, but that was as far as her skills went. One advantage of being tall was that her clothes had never needed taking up, and she'd never bought anything that needed taking in. During her brief stint as a model, she'd been told she was a perfect size and shape to showcase designer clothes. That and her cheekbones were the two reasons she'd been hired.

* * *

Hildy had been exacting but quick, and Kate was a little early meeting Castle for the interview they'd be conducting in a bookstore. She jammed her hands into the pockets of her scarlet wrap-coat as the autumn wind took on a wintery edge. Castle came puffing up, his cheeks reddened and rubbing his hands together. He stuck out his tongue. "Tastes like snow."

"There wasn't any in the forecast," Kate noted, "but you could be right." She pulled her hand out of her pocket long enough to check her watch and pointed toward a storefront. "You're just in time for our appointment with Mr. Sweeney."

If Castle had needed to guess Martin Sweeney's appellation, he might have ventured "Ichabod Crane." The owner of the bookstore was at least six six, but Castle doubted that he weighed much more than a hundred and sixty pounds. What Sweeney lacked in flesh, he made up for in hair. Not only did his straight graying locks fall to his shoulders, but his eyebrows also extended half an inch from his gaunt visage. Castle made a mental note to model a villain after him. Kate extended her hand. "Mr. Sweeney, I'm Kate Beckett, this is Richard Castle."

Sweeney waved a hand dismissively. "I'm aware of that. I sell books, Ms. Beckett. I know authors - and their inspirations. You said on the phone that you wanted to interview me about how Nile may be impacting my business."

"That's correct sir," Kate confirmed. "Specifically, about the sales of cheap e-books and the undercutting of hardcover prices."

"Then I'm sure that one with your reputation for detection prowess knows what I'm going to tell you before I say it. Profits are slim."

Castle covered his mouth to mask a chortle.

Sweeny fixed him with a stare. "I'm aware of my physiognomy, Mr. Castle. I assure you, I've already heard any quip that's hovering on your tongue. I do have a partial solution to the Nile problem, however."

"What would you propose, Mr. Sweeney?" Kate queried.

"Merely this," Sweeney explained. "I believe that those who truly cherish books will continue to do so. I have customers who have not wavered from the path Guttenberg set before them, no matter the siren call of the electronic world. They are enough to keep this place going, provided I keep my budget tight. However, for those who have succumbed to the pull of convenience and thrift, over tradition, I would suggest a universal format that can be freely transmitted."

"Like a PDF?" Castle asked.

The strands of Sweeney's eyebrows vibrated as he nodded. "Precisely. A traditional volume can be loaned to a friend or gifted to a loved one. An e-book should be no different. The cost of the literary works could be set in order with that proviso, leaving the reader an honest choice."

"It's an interesting thought, Mr. Sweeney," Kate acknowledged. "But you understand that Nile would fight such a proposition tooth and nail."

Sweeney's thin lips vibrated as he expelled a breath in disgust. "Of course, they would, Ms. Beckett. The massive corporations engulfing our society zealously guard their treasure troves. But the question is not merely one of money. Our humanity is at stake. The sharing of knowledge and art is how we rise above our primate progenitors. And upon that, Ms. Beckett, one can put no price."

* * *

"Sweeney is a strange bird," Kate offered as she and Castle made their way through the shivering New York City pedestrian throngs to the subway."

"He is quite a character," Castle agreed. "When I first saw him, I was thinking about using him as the model for a villain. But now, I think Storm would like him, and I know Rook would. I'm leaning toward a hero."

A/N Yes, John Nolan is an Easter egg from Nathan's upcoming new series.


	59. Chapter 59

Emergence

Chapter 59

Fat white flakes were just beginning to fall as Castle approached the loft. He wished Kate had returned with him, to grab warmer clothes if nothing else, but she had a schedule of interviews to keep for the afternoon. He had a schedule of his own. First off, he'd have to continue writing his present novel. Then he'd have to start the outline for his first article. He'd be tweaking what he had in mind, a bit, based on what he'd heard from the spectral bookseller, Sweeney. He hoped he could wrap those chores up in a few hours and do some research on John Nolan, before assuming his duties as the supportive father of Alexis.

He could understand his daughter's nervousness. She'd attended a concert at Juilliard and heard the same piece she'd be playing that evening, performed by Dylan Fulton, her dedicated but disturbingly handsome violin teacher. Alexis had been both enthralled and terrified, knowing that she couldn't possibly perform at the level of her mentor. To Castle's mind, there was no reason she should have to. Alexis was a talented amateur with no ambitions of becoming anything else. Dylan, on the other hand, was aiming for a concert career and Castle did not doubt that the young man would get one. As encouraging as Dylan was of Alexis' efforts, it would be Castle's job to make sure his daughter didn't have a meltdown before she could take the stage. His plan involved hug therapy with the possible application of pizza or ice cream, depending on whether or not a swarm of butterflies had invaded his daughter's stomach. He could gauge that situation later. For now, he would have to apply the talents of his fingers not to strings but keys.

* * *

Kate was past shivering and well into chattering teeth. The snow was over the toes of her shoes, and she wished she'd worn boots, but she'd warm up as soon as she reached the loft. She was looking forward to a cup of Castle's extra dark cocoa and the sweet stickiness of melting marshmallows on her lips. Alexis was already sipping the comforting brew with Castle when Kate arrived. On first view of his trembling fiancée, Castle put down his cup and rushed to engulf her in his arms, tucking her head beneath his chin. She snuggled into the warmth of his body. "That feels good. It's really coming down out there."

"I know. If it weren't for Alexis' recital tonight, I'd suggest an evening huddling together and toasting ourselves by the fire. Right now, the only heat I can offer aside from my own, is from chocolate, at least until I can get some macaroni and cheese on the table."

"I'll take it, Babe."

* * *

After deciding that his Mercedes would have better traction than a cab, Castle drove to the small hall where Alexis' recital was being held. It was obvious that the families and supporters of the young musicians had been equally determined to attend, despite the unexpected descent of a polar vortex. If by the time the concert began, there were any empty seats in the audience, Castle could not detect them. The less advanced students performed first, with the music increasing in difficulty until Alexis appeared as the last performer. Tears welled in Castle's eyes as the strains of Mendelssohn's violin concerto in E minor filled the hall. He could feel the laments of Mendelssohn's forebears in the vibrations of the strings his daughter bowed. When Alexis finished her shortened version of the piece, her face paled at the moment of silence, until a thunderous ovation broke out, with the audience rising from their seats. Castle's enthusiastic applause was not just for his daughter, but for the accomplished musician, she had become. As a protective father, he hated to admit it, but she'd made a giant leap forward under Dylan Fulton's tutelage.

Kate released a sneeze she's been terrified would burst free before Alexis reached her final note. She would be happily joining in a celebration of Alexis' accomplishment, but she was looking forward to curling up in with Castle under a heavy comforter - maybe two.

* * *

A cold Kate had dreaded catching, had arrived in full force by the next morning. A tissue in each hand, she forced herself from beneath the covers on Castle's king-sized bed. She wrapped herself in a thick plush robe and slid her feet into furry slippers. There was no way she could smell it, but she hoped Castle had made something hot.

As Kate plopped onto a stool at the counter, Castle slid a steaming mug toward her. "Darjeeling, fortified with honey."

"Bless you," she croaked.

Castle stroked her feverishly warm cheek. "Wow, getting caught in the snow really brought on the grunge, didn't it?'

"Something was going around the office. I think getting chilled yesterday just lowered my resistance. I can take a couple of pills and do my interviews today."

"The hell you will!" Castle declared. "They can wait. There's six inches of snow out there. You know this city. Less accumulation than that can bring things to a standstill. Alexis's school has already posted a closure. So, have the public schools. And even if the hardy booksellers do open their doors, I don't think they'd thank you for passing on whatever the U.S. Attorney's office has incubated. Drink your tea and climb back into bed. I'll cook up a pot of chili that will cauterize your sinuses. And if you're good, I'll tell you a story later. Actually, I'll tell you this one even if you aren't good. It's about my family. I've already told Alexis, and you might as well know more about what you're marrying into."

Kate blew her nose on a paper napkin. "You win, Castle. I'll postpone the interviews. Put some jalapenos into that chili, will you?" Better yet, that hot sauce that can burn holes in the counter."

"I guarantee that my offering will inflame your senses and blow your mind."

* * *

With his chili slowly simmering, Castle loaded up a tray with freshly brewed hot tea and cinnamon toast, to take to Kate. When he peered in the bedroom door, he thought she was sleeping and began to walk away. "Castle, you were going to tell me a story," she called muzzily after him.

Kate pulled herself up against her pillows and Castle put his tray across her lap. "So, I was. This story begins with Colm Nolan, son of John Nolan and Katherine Shaheen Nolan. After Colm's mother died in childbirth with Colm's youngest brother Sean, Colm did his best to help his father raise Sean, and their other two brothers, Patrick and Michael. While John made his rounds as the village constable, Colm made sure that his brothers were fed, that chores were done, and that the two of his brothers old enough to read, put in enough time with their books. He both loved and hated Sean. He was sure that if Sean had not been born that Kathleen would still be with the family. But Sean was a sunny baby, and his smile and joyful babbles brought warmth into the Nolan home. As the eldest, Colm was expected to follow in his father's footsteps, but he had little enthusiasm for the law. He loved books, and he wanted not only to read them but to write one someday. He took the time while Sean napped to craft stories, taken from his father's recountings of his days as a spy in the war. Finally, when his brothers were old enough to fend for themselves, Colm apprenticed with a printer, hoping that he could convince his master to turn out a slim volume of the tales he'd spun. The master would have no part of that, but after years, the older man fell ill. By then Colm was skillful enough to take over the business, and copies of a now sizable book circulated through the surrounding villages. Colm became a sensation. One local girl, Dierdre O'Malley was taken with both Colm's writing and with Colm. They married and had a son John, named after Colm's father. When John grew up, he emigrated to the United States."

"Castle," Kate said, yawning, "I'm sure there's a point to all this somewhere, but what does Colm or John have to do with your family?"

"Ah, that will become clear soon enough, but you're falling asleep again. I can wake you when the chili is ready and finish the story when the spice has shocked you into alertness. Deal?"

Castle took the tray as Kate slid down to cocoon herself in the bed coverings. "Deal," she agreed as she drifted back to her dreams.


	60. Chapter 60

Emergence

Chapter 60

The snow had continued to fall on New York City. Drivers were urged to stay off the roads to allow for passage of emergency vehicles. School children rejoiced while their parents struggled with wet mittens and damp coats. Declaring his chili to have reached its peak of both flavor and corrosiveness, Castle brought a bowl to Kate, along with Saltines and emergency sour cream to ease any burn that became overpowering. Kate wrapped her hands around the stoneware containing Castle's concoction, letting the heat flow into her palms, before attempting to introduce it to her mouth. "Looks wonderful, Castle."

"Guaranteed to spur mucus, and possibly the top layer of skin on your lips, to declare a retreat."

Kate brought a cautious half-spoonful to her mouth and swallowed. A sheen of sweat appeared on her forehead. "I think you nailed it, Babe."

"Excellent! Would you like me to continue with the Nolan saga?"

Fanning her face, Kate nodded.

"After a stint patrolling the streets of New York for the N.Y.P.D., John Nolan decided to go out on his own as a private detective. The profession was not greatly lucrative, but like his father, he loved to write and supplemented his income with submissions to pulp magazines. He preferred tracking thieves to gathering evidence on adulterous spouses, but there was more money in the latter. He was staking out one such miscreant one day for an older but well-fixed wife who suspected that her husband was taking his pleasures elsewhere. Hearing sounds of a struggle in a nearby alley, his police instincts awoke, and he rushed in to find a young woman bravely fighting against two attackers. John immediately joined the fray, taking both already bruised men down.

John gazed at the intended victim and was immediately reminded of a painting of his grandmother. Not only was the woman beautiful, but her eyes also shone with the same fighting spirit. John was immediately enthralled and began a fervent courtship of Molly Flynn. John and Molly married and had one son whom they named John, but called Jack. I found one picture of Jack in his teens. He was already taller than I am, but his eyes were like mine, and he had the grin that I sometimes catch in the mirror. I showed the picture to Mother. She said that he looked like a younger version of my father. Kate, it's all connected. You have the beauty and zest for battle of Kathleen Shaheen and Molly Flynn. I'm a descendant of the many John Nolans. We were destined to be together."

"So now that your mother knows your father's name, is she going to track him down? Are you?"

"Kate, I've already made an effort, but after the photo of him as a teenager, anything else about him seems to have been scrubbed from the record."

"Which just fuels your active imagination," Kate ventured.

"You're right," Castle admitted. "I'm wondering if Jack is a throwback to the original John Nolan, a spy in deep cover, whose tracks have been painstakingly covered. It would explain why he disappeared so thoroughly from Mother's life. His genes might even have helped inspire Derrick Storm."

"I don't know about the spy genes, but there's no doubt about the writer genes, Castle. If you are a Nolan, that is a rich legacy."

"Yes, it is," Castle agreed, "and I intend to do everything I can to honor it."

* * *

"You're obviously feeling better," Castle observed, as Kate began to croon a Sinatra standard in the shower.

"It's been a week, Castle," Kate noted. "The snow is gone, and I need to get back to work."

"Any interviews you need me to tag along on?" Castle asked.

"I don't think so. Everyone I talked to after Sweeney said pretty much the same thing. I just need a thick enough file to impress Elizabeth."

Castle ran a finger through the rivulets of water flowing down Kate's back. "After having you here every day, even if you were on the disabled list, I am going to miss you."

Kate turned to him. "I'm going to miss you too, Babe, but some of the bookstore owners said they're going to close down an hour earlier to save on their bills from Con Ed. I shouldn't be back too late."

"I will count every minute," Castle declared.

* * *

Jack Nolan, aka Jackson Hunt, looked up at the windows of the loft on Broome Street. His son was up there, as was Martha. He'd always kept tabs on them, but received an extra reminder when he got an alert that someone had been trying to track him down. At first, he thought it was Volkov. He knew the Russian had been gunning for him ever since the murderous member of the GRU had escaped from his Chechenian prison, but Volkov was too careful to have left the digital footprint that the CIA had flagged. It was Richard. How Jack's son had stumbled on the Nolan name, neither Jack nor any of the analysts had any idea, but Jack could never allow Richard to get any closer to finding him. He shouldn't have even come near Richard's loft, but he couldn't resist. He'd proudly followed the career of Richard Castle and had even taken a seat in the back of the hall when Alexis had her recital. He had no right to be proud of his family. Whatever they'd accomplished they'd done without any help from him, but he was proud nevertheless.

Jack considered Kate Beckett. Except for giving the world Alexis, Richard's first marriage had been a bust. From what Jack had been able to tell, his second one had been worse. But Kate Beckett was worlds away from Meredith or Gina. If her portrayal in Richard's books was anything to go by, she was much like Jack's mother had been; beautiful, resourceful, brave, and stubborn as the day was long. Jack hoped that for Richard, the third time would be the charm. Jack looked around. He'd stood in one place too long. In the hurried passage of pedestrians on the sidewalk, he would be noticed. Regretfully, he turned and strode toward the subway.

* * *

Despite his vow to be aware of every second Kate was gone, Castle had been startled when she appeared in the doorway of his office. He'd immersed himself in his chapter, mouthing the words his characters spoke and acting out their actions, at the keyboard.

Kate's eyebrows rose. "I'm not even going to ask what you were doing, Castle."

Castle tilted sideways in his chair. "Just figuring out some creative interaction between Rook and Heat."

"Creative is right. Where's Alexis?"

"Mother took her backstage at the musical that just opened. Alexis grew up watching the lead on the Disney Channel. Ashley notwithstanding, my daughter has a major crush. She actually squealed when Mother said she could arrange an introduction."

Kate posed, leaning against the door frame and twirling a strand of her hair around her finger. "So, we're alone for the evening, Mr. Castle?"

"Why Ms. Beckett, I believe we are."

"Does your creativity extend to ideas of how we should spend our time?"

"That depends. Are you hungry?"

Kate pulled open a button on her blouse. "Food wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

Castle popped from his chair and scooped Kate up in his arms. "Then I guess I'll just have to think of something else."


	61. Chapter 61

Emergence

Chapter 61

The Consumer Digital Rights Act, or the CDR as pundits called it, was slowly grinding its way through the legislative process. The investigation of price fixing in the publishing industry conducted by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District was proceeding no more rapidly, but it was proceeding. Elizabeth Weston had freely acknowledged that neither process would be taking place if it hadn't been for the efforts of her investigator Kate Beckett, and gadfly author Richard Castle.

Kate's professional star was on the rise, but she had other things on her mind. For the third time since Lanie had helped her dress, she silently thanked Hildy Conway for her insistence that Kate's dress should allow for generous breathing room. The child growing inside Kate was barely the size of a lima bean, and her measurements hadn't changed, but she still felt more comfortable in clothes that weren't quite as tight fitting as she might have formerly preferred. For his part, Castle couldn't wait until baby bump was obvious and Kate would give him leave to announce the coming arrival to the world, but for now, he was acceding to Kate's wishes to keep the news limited to family and close friends. Had she still been in the N.Y.P.D., a pregnancy might have resulted in limited duty, but the U.S. Attorney's office had no such regulations. After her honeymoon, as long as she and the baby were healthy, she fully intended to work until she went into labor.

Both Ruby Moorhead and Ophelia Adams were efficiently checking and rechecking the details of both the wedding ceremony and the reception. Kate and Rick had spent the night before at the Winthrop Inn, as had many of their guests, after attending the rehearsal dinner. Kate had joined her father in sipping bubbly alcohol-free wine, which at least looked like champagne. Kate wished she had been able to indulge in a little of the real stuff, not because wanted to get drunk but because it might have helped her sleep. Neither she nor Rick had gotten much, despite enthusiastically indulging in the lovemaking that usually brought on boneless slumber. Sometime around two A.M. they'd both given up trying and watched romantic wedding movies until the rising sun painted the forest surrounding the Winthrop Lodge with even brighter colors.

Martha was already at the lodge's sumptuous breakfast when Rick and Kate had arrived. Kate hadn't suffered much from morning sickness, but she and Castle had indulged in a long shower before the put on the clothes they wore until changing for the wedding. Later, Martha had shooed Rick away from seeing Kate in her gown, but in the glimpse she'd caught of him in the old-style jacket he'd had made from the image in the painting, he'd never looked more handsome - or nervous. She hoped her face didn't hold a similar expression as Lanie handed her the bouquet of bright flowers and Autumn leaves. A string quartet played the Pachelbel Canon as Kate's cousin Sophia started down the aisle ahead of Lanie. With Ryan and Esposito at his side, Castle waited in in arch formed of red and yellow foliage. He could see no one but Kate, and he held out his hand as Jim Beckett delivered her to entwine her fingers with his.

Pastor Genevieve Kovac stood before the couple, in a vestment the color of ripe wheat. "We are gathered here in the glory of God's splendor to join Katherine Beckett and Richard Castle in holy matrimony. Marriage is at once a solemn and joyous event, and Kate and Rick invite you to join them in their joy. They have written their own vows which they will be declaring in the presence of the Lord and before this assembly. Kate, you may begin."

Lanie handed Kate a platinum band, which she slipped on Castle's finger. "Rick, no matter my struggle, no matter the danger, you have been steadfastly by my side, joining me in every battle I've fought. You have loved me and supported me through times good and bad, through every step I've taken to reach this place. I want nothing more than to spend my life returning that love. I promise to stand with you as your partner, friend, and wife, whatever the future holds, always."

Genevieve turned to Rick and nodded. Esposito handed Ryan a more delicate version of Rick's band, which Ryan passed on to Castle. Rick slipped it on Kate's slim but strong digit. "Kate, I fell in love with you the moment you first flashed your badge in my face. Through the years, that love has grown in ways I never could have conceived. I want to fall asleep with you at my side. I want to see you when I wake. Whatever trials life may bring I vow that we will face them together. I promise to stand with you in every battle you face, to be your partner, friend, and husband, for as long as the universe spins around us, and to love you, always."

Genevieve looked out on the sea of guests. "As Richard and Katherine have spoken their vows and exchanged rings in front of God and this company, I now pronounce them husband and wife."

Kate's lips met Rick's before Genevieve could say another word, and applause echoed through the woods.

Just beyond the clearing that blazed with the wonders of natural beauty and love, Jack Nolan crouched, hidden by thick foliage. Richard would never know he was there. No one would. Anything else would endanger their lives. But the sight of Rick and his bride reached his eyes, and the sound of their vows touched his heart. He would watch over them as best he could from afar and carry this moment with him as a memory of light, into whatever shadowy hellhole he was sent.

At the wedding table in Hancock Hall, Ryan and Esposito locked eyes to coordinate a simultaneous raising of glasses. As the winner of a coin flip, Esposito began. "It didn't take much detecting to see that Rick was hooked on Kate, the minute she dragged him into the Twelfth Precinct for questioning. During his first year shadowing her, we all bet that they'd end up together, and at first, we all thought we'd lost that bet. But as detectives of the Twelfth, we could read the signs a mile away, Kate and Rick just kept tripping themselves up on the road we all knew they were on."

Esposito nodded at Ryan, who continued. "But whatever obstacles life threw in their path, they overcame them. Theirs is a love story that even an assassin's bullet could not end. So, I say to you all now, raise your glasses to Rick and Kate. May the road rise to meet them. May the wind be always at their backs. May the sun shine warm upon their faces; the rains never wash the happiness from their hearts, and may God hold them in the palm of his hand." Crystal rang as glasses touched in concert.

The voice of a DJ penetrated the revels, from a sound system in the back of the hall where a dance floor had been set up. "This is for the bride and groom and anyone who's ever found the other half of their soul." Kate and Rick took the floor as Diana Ross, and Lionel Richie proclaimed their endless love.


	62. Chapter 62

Emergence

Chapter 62

Kate raised her arms to cheer as her knight thrust his lance through the target. "Castle, I'll admit, with eating the food with our hands and everything, I didn't think Medieval Times would be this much fun, but I'm really getting into it. I would never have considered Buena Park as a honeymoon spot, but I'm glad you thought of it."

"Actually, I didn't," Castle confessed. "Meredith had a gig at Knott's Berry Farm - that's Knott's Scary Farm right now - when Alexis went out to visit her. Alexis brought back all kinds of cool pictures. From here we can get to anything we want to see in the L.A. area or even San Diego. And Disneyland isn't far either. We can have any kind of adventure we want or just go lie on a beach together and soak up some sun."

"I like the idea of sun, Castle, but do you think we can find one that isn't too crowded?"

"Just leave it to me," he assured her.

* * *

"San Clemente? Railroad tracks, Castle, really?"

"Kate, you said you didn't want a crowd. I was too young to remember much but mother told me that she brought me here when she was shooting a movie in Southern California. San Clemente was Richard Nixon's refuge, so in the seventies, it got a bit of a bad rap. It's recovered, but this part of the beach doesn't get much traffic. Alexis came here too when she was visiting Meredith. She reminded me of it when she came up from Columbia for the wedding. There's no surfing, and you have to take a walk to get to any attractions. They don't even charge for parking. It's just a beach. With the picnic basket the hotel fixed for us, it should be great. But if you want to go someplace busier, we can."

Kate gazed out at the empty stretch of sand and the water beyond. "No, Castle, a honeymoon is supposed to be for you and me. We've been in crowds. It will be nice to have a little alone time."

"My thoughts exactly, let's claim our spot."

Castle spread a blanket, also courtesy of their hotel, on the sand. "I should put sunscreen on you," he said, as Kate shed her cover-up. After squeezing a tube into the palm of his hand, his slow and slick caress covered every bit of her exposed skin. He rubbed his cheek against her temple. "There, all protected from the ravages of Sol."

"I can return the favor, Castle," Kate suggested, holding out her hand for the tube. His skin felt warm beneath her hands as he lay on the blanket and she covered his back and shoulders with the silky cream, He began to twitch as she worked her way down his legs. "You need to turn over Castle."

As he rolled, the tenting of his swim trunks became obvious. "Castle, I never knew you were turned on by sunscreen."

"I never have been. It is purely the beautiful woman applying it. But that stuff is supposed to be waterproof. When you finish, I can get in the ocean and cool off."

"Why would you want to cool off, Castle? We are on our honeymoon."

"Yes, yes we are." He agreed. "But this is a public beach. Some young family could arrive at any time, and there's no cover. We can't go shocking innocent little eyes."

Kate ran her fingertips over his bare chest. "But what happens under the sea, stays under the sea."

"Unless you're Spongebob Squarepants, or Ariel, or Aquaman, Castle offered." Kate's eyes narrowed as her mouth thinned. "Never mind, Castle added hurriedly. "Let's go." Kate dropped the sunscreen as he reached for her hand, and they ran into the ocean together.

As the water rose to his chest, Castle lifted Kate against his obvious arousal, and she wrapped her legs around him. Their lips met in the salty spray, as Kate ground against his body. Wet strands of her hair clung to her face, as she struggled for more intense sensation."

Castle grunted. "Your damn bathing suit is in the way!"

Kate pulled the stretchy fabric away from her most intimate needs. Castle's fly parted, and they joined, foam swirling around them as they moved. Castle felt the rhythm of his heart synching to the rhythm of the waves, and moved with it, as Kate pressed more desperately against him at every thrust. The moment came upon them like the crashing of a monster wave against the shore, followed by the advance and retreat of gentler flow against the sand. Rick held Kate tightly against him until the tide stilled.

Castle glanced back toward the shore. "Just in time. Looks like we're going to have company." Three women, their arms laden with beach paraphernalia, were striding as fast as they could behind three little boys in swim trunks. When they reached a spot on the beach where they could drop their burden, two boys were already digging in the sand while the third stared out at the water.

"Castle, do you think he's looking at us?" Kate wondered.

"I don't think so," Castle answered. "Look at his fingers. I think he's counting waves."

Kate and Rick returned to their blanket on the beach and Castle began unloading the picnic basket. There were thick roast beef sandwiches, with sides of horseradish, potato salad, and very Californian broccoli slaw."

Kate grabbed the horseradish and applied it liberally to the meat in her sandwich. "I'm glad they put this in there."

"I asked them to," Castle replied. "I know my pregnant wife, and I could not deny her anything."

Kate leaned in for a piquant kiss. "You're the best, Babe."

Castle rubbed his thumb over her jawline. "That's why you married me isn't it?"

Kate swatted him with her towel. The boy who had been watching the sea ran over, shouting, "No hit! Not allowed to hit! Lose sticker. No hit!"

One of the women followed swiftly behind him and pulled him up into her arms. "I am so sorry. We didn't mean to bother anyone. Usually, this beach is empty. That's why our support group comes here."

"Support group for autism?" Castle asked. "I noticed one of the other boys flapping his arms after he filled up a bucket of sand to build his castle."

"That's right. The ocean calms the boys. Just about any water, actually, but the ocean is the best."

"I know," Castle said. "There's a family with an autistic child, who lives near my beach house in the Hamptons. He loves the ocean. He looked at the boy. "What's your name?"

The boy pointed a thumb toward his chest and said, "Colin."

"Colin," Kate repeated. "I'm Kate, and this is Rick. You are right, Colin. Hitting is bad." She gestured toward Castle. "But Rick and I were playing a game. I would never hurt him."

Colin regarded her with confusion. "No hit," he repeated.

"Hey, again I'm sorry," his mother said. "You two have a good day." She strode away, with Colin repeating "No hit," over and over as she returned to the other mothers.

Kate put her hand on her abdomen. "Castle, what if our child is born with autism - or some other challenge? What will we do?"

He palmed her cheek. "Love it with all our hearts and do whatever we can to make sure he or she has the best life possible. That's all any parent can do with any child, Kate, whether they have a disability or not. Whatever happens, I know you'll be a great mother. And you already know I'm a great father."

For a moment Kate was tempted to swat him again, but Colin was just down the beach. "I do, Castle. No one could have raised Alexis any better. And the next time she turns up in the loft with her laundry, I'll have to thank her for raising you."


	63. Chapter 63

Emergence

Chapter 63

Kate shifted in her chair at the staff meeting. She still wasn't used to having anything in her way when she leaned forward to take notes. She looked up as Elizabeth Weston called her name. "Kate, I believe you are uniquely suited to look into a problem that is getting worse in our district - black market babies. Vulnerable mothers are either coaxed into signing away their rights in exchange for minimal support, or in some cases; they're being kidnapped before they give birth and the babies are stolen. We need you to talk to some of the women who've been targeted. Find out anything you can about the operation, and if you can, work your way in. When are you due?"

"In about four and a half months."

"Then make every minute count. I'll send the file to your computer."

* * *

Castle shook his head. "Kate, you know I'm behind you all the way, but this case sounds dangerous for you and Jo."

"Babe, if these people decide that I'm a target, they wouldn't dare hurt the baby or me. That would throw their profit out the window. From the information we've been able to gather, they've been getting upwards of $100,000 for white babies. And when I need it, I'll have back-up from the FBI."

"You'll pardon me if I have less than complete confidence in the Feebies," Castle said. "If I may remind you Jimmy the Rat was shot while in their custody. And let us not forget we had to save their asses from being blown up by cyclonite."

"Yeah, but Castle, these are not mobsters or crazy serial killers. They don't kill, they just steal. Even the mothers that were kidnapped were released unharmed."

"Except for having their babies stolen. What worse trauma could there be than losing a child? And if they were released unharmed, why can't they identify these baby snatchers?"

"The operation moved their people around and sometimes they used blindfolds and masks. But getting IDs is one of the things I'll be digging into. There may be an identifying characteristic that the FBI missed."

"Now that wouldn't surprise me," Castle said. "Just be careful, Kate. You're looking out for two lives now."

"Babe, I could never forget that for a moment."

* * *

Ellie Monroe had been desperate. As her pregnancy had begun to show, the roles had dried up. It was a cruel irony that she'd gotten pregnant on the casting couch. She didn't even know who the father was. Screwing an occasional network executive had worked for her, although they tended to be slobs. She fondly remembered trying to get Richard Castle to recommend her for the part of Nikki Heat. He'd been good in bed, and she'd been able to test for the role. Unfortunately, it had gone to Natalie Rhodes. The movie was a disaster, but the money would have been nice. As much as it might have solved her problem, she couldn't live with the idea of having an abortion. She'd been about to be thrown out of her apartment, when one of the women who'd done her hair on a _Shelby_ , a sitcom on which she'd made a brief appearance, approached her. Her expenses would be paid, and a little more for her trouble, then the baby would go to a loving family for adoption. It had sounded perfect. But when the baby was born, she couldn't even find out who the family was, or if her little boy, whom she'd been thinking of as Richie, would be happy there. That was when she went to the cops, but they hadn't been much help. As strange as it was to be talking to the real Nikki Heat, especially since the former N.Y.P.D. detective was now married to Richard Castle, Ellie was glad when Kate Beckett showed up at her door. She was a little surprised by Kate's pregnancy. Rick had been very careful. He'd carried condoms, and when she told him she was on the pill, she had to show him. It was her bad luck that she fell into the tenth of a percent of women for whom the pill didn't work. Rick had to really want the baby his wife was carrying, and Kate must too. She had that glow.

"This hair lady, do you know where she is now?" Kate asked when the interview was underway.

Ellie shrugged. "No idea. The show she was on got canceled after 13 episodes. I heard she was planning to go up to Canada. They shoot so many shows up there now, especially in Vancouver. But I don't know if she got a gig up there. The Canadians like to hire Canadians."

"Does she have a name?" Kate queried.

"I just knew her as Mitzi. I don't know if that was short for something or what. "

"It's a start," Kate replied. "How about the lawyer who handled the paperwork for the adoption? Did you ever meet him?"

Ellie shook her head, and Kate couldn't help noticing that Ellie's carefully gelled hair didn't move. "Everything went through Mitzi. And when she took me to the birthing room, everyone wore surgical masks."

"Surgical masks don't cover a whole face. Can you remember anything about the people who wore them? Eye color? Hair color? Distinguishing marks?"

"Kate, you'll find out that when you're in labor, you don't worry about things like that. A doctor is a doctor, and a nurse is a nurse. Wait! I do remember that the doctor had a scar above one eye. The left eye, I think. It was pretty obvious because it ran through his eyebrow and there was no hair there."

"Okay. How about Mitzi? Could you work with a sketch artist so we can have a picture of her?"

Ellie cracked the first smile Kate had seen since she'd arrived. "I can do better than that." Ellie got up from the small table where they'd been talking, to rummage in a drawer. She pulled out a snapshot and handed it to Kate. This was taken at the Shelby wrap party. That's me, and that's Mitzi at the buffet with the plate full of mini-corndogs."

"I can work with this." Kate handed Ellie a card. "Call me anytime if you remember any other details. Any little thing can break a case wide open."

"That's what your…."

"My husband told you that? Yeah, I know you slept with him, Ellie." Kate took a step toward the door. "But I married him."

"You've got a good man there, Kate. Don't fuck it up."

"I have no intention of fucking it up, Ellie." Kate laid a hand on her belly. "Especially not now."

"I wish you all the luck in the world, Kate. I mean that. And Rick too."

"I'll pass that on," Kate assured her.

* * *

"Awkward!" Castle proclaimed when Kate recounted her meeting.

"It was," Kate admitted. "But it was worth it. Facial recognition turned up an ID on Mitzi. She's working in New York doing hair for _Hello New York_. Her real name is Mathilda Ann Coxsackie."

"Ew! Like the virus. If I had a name like that I'd stay with a nickname too," Castle offered.

Kate put two fingers to her lower lip. "Yeah, I would too. Anyway, I'm going to the set of _Hello New York_ tomorrow morning to talk to her. She's the first link in the chain."

"Enjoy! I've been on that show. They have a terrific craft services table. The bagels are fresh, and so are the muffins."

Kate licked her lips. "Sounds great."


	64. Chapter 64

Emergence

Chapter 64

Mitzi was just finishing the hair of the guest co-host on _Hello New York_ when Kate approached. Oh, if you're a guest, no one told me. I do love to do pregnant hair. It thickens up beautifully."

Kate flashed her ID. "Not a guest."

Mitzi regarded Kate with an appraising eye. "Well, you could be. You're certainly pretty enough to be an actress, and I'll bet the camera loves you. But I can't imagine what you want from me, Investigator Beckett."

"Are you Mitzi and do you know an Ellie Monroe?" Kate asked.

Mitzi put down her tube of hair gel. "Yeah, I'm Mitzi, but I wouldn't say know her. I did her hair a couple of times on Shelby. Why? Is she in some kind of trouble?"

"The way she tells it, you got her out of trouble," Kate responded. "Is there somewhere we can talk? Privately?"

"Yeah, sure," Mitzi said, leading the way to a darkened corner backstage.

"Look," Kate said, "Ellie told me all about how you helped to arrange the adoption of her baby."

"That's not illegal," Mitzi protested.

"No, it isn't. But the people you arranged it with have been indulging in baby-selling, which is illegal, very illegal. They may also be implicated in kidnapping."

Mitzi's eyes widened, and her hand flew to her mouth. "Ms. Beckett, I swear, I had no idea! It's like you said, I just helped women like Ellie get out of trouble. It's a hard world out there for people in the business. Some of these young actresses are so anxious to get ahead; they don't use their best judgment. And there are lots of families that want babies. I thought I was doing a good thing. I hope you believe me."

"I'll believe you a lot better if you can lead me to your contacts, Mitzi."

"There's just this guy I know. I met him when he helped out a friend of mine a while back. He handles everything; he even told me where to take the women to give birth."

"Alright, then you're going to tell me everything you can about this guy, starting with his name."

"Fine, his name is Corby Blount. He has an office on Columbus Ave." Mitzi fished her phone out of the pocket of her smock brought up Blount's contact information and handed the cell over to Kate who used her own phone to capture the listing.

* * *

Jack Nolan was watching Kate Beckett. The case she was on worried him. He knew that she had FBI protection, but he'd seen those guys mess up way too many times. Not that his guys hadn't. He'd seen more screwed up operations than he could count. He'd had to let them go, or he would never have been able to continue with his own work. But this was different. Kate was his daughter-in-law, and she was carrying his second grandchild. He was stateside for a while. He'd earned a break after taking out a diplomatic attaché who'd been who'd been systematically eliminating threats to Putin's power. No one would ever find the body. He had dumped it into a cement kiln with a bunch of other hazardous waste. The ash that was left might reinforce a wall somewhere. At least in death, the assassin could serve a useful purpose. Jack didn't know how long it would be before the next emergency broke, but he'd use whatever time he had, to protect his family. It wasn't like being a real father to Richard, but it was the best he could do. Kate was heading west. Police trained as she was, he'd have to be at the top of his game to follow her unseen, but decades of experience had taught him tricks that never made it into any academy. He could do it.

* * *

According to the building directory, Corby Blount was an adoption advocate - whatever that was supposed to mean. Kate took a seat in his waiting room. Her chair was well designed, padded enough to be comfortable, but not so deep as to give women way farther along than she was, a problem getting up. The man set his stage well. He'd also made things a lot easier for her. She could give him a story about the importance of her work and her husband not being comfortable starting a second family. Anyone who actually knew Castle would know how much he loved children, but Blount and Castle were not acquainted. If she needed him to, Kate was sure that Castle could play the self-centered husband. Until she'd come to know him a lot better, she'd regarded him as shallow and selfish, surprised when he'd turned out to be anything but.

Kate checked her email while she waited for the receptionist to call her name. Nothing was interesting except for a reminder from Lanie about their girls' night out. Kate had become enough of a homebody to be less interested in clubbing, but Castle had a poker game that night with his mystery writers posse, so there was no reason not to spend some time with her friend, even if she would be sticking to club soda or orange juice.

The young man at the receptionist's desk called Kate's name and ushered her into Blount's office. Blount, smiled as he offered his hand to Kate. His grin was too wide and eerily reminded Kate of the Joker, but his skin was anything but pale. Either he spent a lot of time under UV lamps, or it was spray-on tan. Kate suspected the later. If he'd been a celebrity, she might have suspected he was on _Dancing with the Stars_. His suit was custom made, but his tailor wasn't as good as the one Castle used. Either that, or he'd gained weight since it had been fitted. She pulled her gaze back to his face as he spoke. "Ms. Beckett, I assume that you are here because you would like to find a loving home for your child."

"To tell you the truth, Mr. Blount, I haven't quite decided yet. I have a new job, and my husband and I had not been planning on children quite this soon, if at all. I just wanted to explore our options."

"I see. Of course, that decision is entirely up to you and your husband. But I can assure you that every family into which we place a child has been thoroughly vetted. That they have no criminal record goes without saying, but they must also have the resources to provide for a child's needs as well as being thoroughly screened for any mental health issues. We take every precaution to ensure that the outcome will be a good one for all concerned, especially the child."

"Who is we, Mr. Blount? Who do you work with?"

"I have a team of investigators and social workers, Ms. Beckett, as well as an expert in family law. I assure you that our people have all the bases covered.

"That's good to know, Mr. Blount. I'll discuss this with my husband and let you know if we decide to use your services."

"Ms. Beckett, I look forward to hearing from you."

As soon as Kate was out of his office, Blount grabbed his phone. "Hey, it's me. I want everything you can find on a Katherine Beckett. Yeah. She was just here, and she doesn't have that desperate look in her eyes I usually see in our clients. Something is off. Find out what it is."


	65. Chapter 65

Emergence

Chapter 65

Lanie's head waggled on her neck. "Girl, you gave the man your real name?"

"I figured it would be the best way to go. He was slimy, but I didn't peg him as stupid. I'm a public figure, and Castle is at least marginally famous. If I have to bring him in as my husband, he could be burned. This way, if they check us out, we're exactly who we say we are - more or less. I'm a hard-driving professional with a new job, and he's a writer who already has a family. It makes sense that I might want to put a surprise child up for adoption."

"I get that Kate, but you're still putting yourself out there."

"I'm not in any real danger. No one is going to kill the goose that lays the golden egg."

"Yeah, but you said there've been kidnappings. Geese get penned."

"I'll have the FBI on me, and I'll keep them up to date. These guys have to know that if they try to snatch a federal agent, they'll be in a world of trouble, way more than for selling babies or even kidnapping civilians."

Lanie shook her head. "I hope you're right."

"So, let's drop the stuff about my case. What's going on with you and Javi? Seemed like you were pretty cheek to cheek at the wedding. Still smoldering or more on-again-off-again?"

"More off-again than on-again. The occasional booty call is terrific, and we have a good time together, we just don't seem to be able to make it as a couple. I mean it's not like you and Castle were. Even before you were together, the heat between the two of you could have boiled water. With Javi and me it's more of a gentle warmth - unless we're in bed together. Then we could set off the sprinklers. But I don't think that's enough for an ever after. Maybe the right guy will come along someday, and until then I get enough action to keep my hormones in check. And how are your joy juices flowing? You should be at the stage where you're in the pregnant but not too pregnant happiness cloud."

"I am," Kate admitted. "I've started surfing the baby sites. I can't believe how cute some of those things are. I just don't want to jinx things by buying anything too soon, you know?"

"Sure honey. Considering how prone to trouble her parents are, Jo needs every bit of luck she can get. Have you decided whether to go with Jo as a nickname for Johanna or just stay with Jo, like the brave one from _Little Women_?"

"I'd think of her as brave either way, but I'm thinking we'll put Johanna on her birth certificate and call her Jo. That will honor my mother and make my dad feel good, knowing there's a continuation of my Mom's legacy."

Lanie nodded. "Now you're making sense. Oh, I love this song! I'm gonna shake it! Coming?"

Kate shrugged. "Might as well while I still can."

* * *

"So, Castle," Connelly asked, "since you're not following Kate around like a puppy anymore, what are you doing?"

"This may come as a surprise to you guys, but I'm writing. I've got both Storm and Heat series going, and I've started a new one, a cross-generational saga, based on some digging I did into my own history. And I will have you know that I am still serving as a consultant to law enforcement, except that now it's to the U.S. Attorney's office instead of the N.Y.P.D. Of course, if my old pals from the Twelfth Precinct need it, I will still be happy to give them the advantage of my crime-solving prowess."

"Modest as ever," Patterson put in. "But then you have so much to be modest about, Castle."

"Says the man who hasn't won a hand all night," Castle retorted.

"Just deal, Castle," Patterson grumbled.

"Where is Kate, tonight?" Alex Conrad asked. "I was hoping I'd get a chance to say hello."

"To bad for you. She's doing the sisterhood thing with Lanie Parish. Wow, Conrad, my muse is married to me and pregnant with my child, and you're still trying to steal her. "

"She was more fun than Ryan and Esposito, but she is definitely yours, Castle. On the bright side, Ryan loves giving me the exacting if boring details of police procedure. Between that and Esposito telling testosterone-tinged tales of his exploits, I do okay."

Castle slapped cards on the table. "Just so long as you stay in your own yard. Hey, I hear Gina is looking for a new squeeze."

Alex put his hands to his throat with a choking noise. "No thanks, Castle. Let's just play the hand."

* * *

Corby Blount listened carefully to the voice on the phone before responding. "So, she's married to a multi-millionaire writer, and she's one of those high powered driven types, so she would be worried about a baby interfering with her job." Corby shrugged. "With that kind of money, you'd think they'd just hire a nanny. But this is great for us. With a father who's a best-selling author, the kid will be a celebrity baby. That should be worth a lot of extra bucks. Start hunting for prospects, and I'll make sure we keep Kate Beckett and Richard Castle on the hook."

* * *

"You want me to do what?" Castle asked.

"I told you. Blount, the guy I think is running the baby-selling ring, called. He asked me to bring you to his office to make sure you're on board with the deal," Kate reiterated.

"Yes, I suppose if he thought I wasn't, with my resources and crime-solving history, he'd expect me to track him to the ends of the earth."

Kate rolled her eyes. "No doubt Castle. So, you come with me and play the rich, self-absorbed author who doesn't want a baby screwing up his life with his beautiful new wife. You can do that, can't you?"

"It will be a stretch of my thespian abilities, but I will make the effort."

* * *

Jack Nolan didn't understand what he was seeing. Richard and Kate couldn't seriously be thinking of giving up his grandchild. But yet they were going to the office of a baby broker. It didn't make sense. When Meredith had run off and left Richard to raise Alexis, he'd done everything possible to be a good father. The present situation would be much easier with two parents. And Richard had the bucks to buy any help they needed. Richard had to be assisting Kate on her case. There was no other explanation that Jack could accept. That might make things safer for Kate and the baby, but with Richard's luck, the whole operation could just blow up in their faces. He'd stay alert to any possibilities.

Jack had used his own resources to get background on Corby Blount. There was no question that the man was a snake. He'd started out operating in Southern California, preying on girls who'd come seeking stardom and found themselves out of money and out of luck. He'd worked his way across the country, growing bolder until finally expanding his operation to kidnapping. He hadn't killed anyone yet, but the possibility was there. In Jack's experience, anyone could kill if they felt threatened and desperate enough. As far as Jack was concerned, any threat to his family was more than enough reason for him to wipe the bastard Blount from existence. Blount had better not make a wrong move.


	66. Chapter 66

Emergence

Chapter 66

Blount shook Rick's hand with a grip that the writer found less than sincere. "Mr. Castle, honored to meet you. Your work has graced my bookshelves many a time."

"I bet," Castle mused silently, pasting a grin across his face. "Always glad to meet a fan, Mr. Blount, but I believe my lovely if bulky wife has provided you with all the necessary paperwork. What is it you wanted from me?"

"Simply your assurance that you and Ms. Beckett are in agreement about all of this. For a biological parent to change their mind is traumatic for everyone involved, especially the child who has bonded with the adoptive parents. The legal complications would also be considerable and with someone of your stature, most likely public. The work we do here is completely confidential, Mr. Castle. I can't allow anything to compromise that."

"No, of course, you can't," Castle agreed. "But I can assure you; I was on board with the adoption idea from the beginning." Castle wrinkled his nose. "I've had my time with dirty diapers and snarky know-it-all teachers. I want a chance to enjoy my life with Kate, unencumbered. It's understandable, considering how women's hormones flood their brains when they're pregnant, but Kate was the one who needed some time to make up her mind."

Blount turned to Kate. "And you're sure, Ms. Beckett? Once we locate the right family for your daughter, there will be no going back."

"I'm fine with it, Mr. Blount," Kate declared. "My life with Rick and my job are my priorities right now. And I'd love to give the gift of a child to some woman who truly wants one."

Blount clapped his hands together. "It's settled then. Take good care of your wife, Mr. Castle. I'll be in touch when the arrangements are further along."

"Do you think we convinced him?" Castle asked as he pushed the unlock button on the key fob for the Mercedes.

"It sure looked like it, Castle," Kate said. "But we'll know soon enough. Elizabeth has other things for me to work on, computer research mostly, while we wait for Blount to make his next move. I think she's almost as much of a mother hen as you and Lanie are."

"We have good reason to be, Kate. We know you. You've never stopped trying to run into traffic. Someone has to make sure you and the baby don't get run over."

"There's no chance of that Castle. I've known how to dodge New York cabbies all my life, and they're a lot more dangerous than Blount. But I do love you for worrying." She gave him a quick kiss before settling herself in the passenger seat. "Can you drop me at my office? I want to give Elizabeth a full report."

Castle nodded and doffed an imaginary hat. "Richard Castle, chauffeur extraordinaire at your service."

* * *

Jack Nolan nodded to himself as he listened to the feed from his audio amplifier. He'd guessed right. Kate was pulling a con on Blount and Richard was helping her. He appreciated what Kate had said about being at a desk for a while. That would make the job of keeping her safe a lot easier, but sooner or later, she'd want to spring her trap. He'd just have to make sure she wasn't the one caught in it."

* * *

Lanie gazed at the model nurseries set up in the aisles of Baby Bonanza. "I'm surprised that Castle didn't save Alexis' crib."

"He did," Kate confided, "It's in the basement of the loft. I could see her teeth marks on the rail when we went down to look at it. But Castle was worried that it wouldn't accommodate all the new monitoring equipment he's been looking at on his gizmo lovers' websites. I can see his point. He wants to know that Jo will be safe, twenty-four seven. He just goes a little overboard. He was talking about hiring one of those ex-commandos to watch over both of us. He said something about asking Javi if he knew someone."

"As over the top as that husband of yours gets, I'm not so sure that's the craziest idea he's ever had. This thing with the mommy snatcher still sounds dangerous to me."

"Nothing's happening with that right now anyway. The arrangements are not supposed to be finalized until I'm close to delivery. And even if Blount were stupid enough to try to kidnap me, it wouldn't do him much good until then. I'm helping out Elizabeth's in-house staff on other cases. Relax, will you? Help me find a crib that will pass Castle's technological muster. All of these look like they belong in a Disney princess' fairytale bedchamber. I need something more Princess Leia."

"Next thing you know, Castle will want Jo to have her own droid."

"He's mentioned it. He's been looking into one the Japanese are developing."

Lanie palmed her face.

* * *

The food at Kate's baby shower was catered by none other than the culinary queen, Madison Queller. The games were arranged by Jenny and Kevin Ryan and the music provided by Javier Esposito. Lanie presided over the whole affair. Castle was in his glory, having won the "Remember All the Baby Items on the Tray," contest, in a runaway. Two of the hotter lawyers from Weston's office were imagining him as a dream witness. As far as Kate was concerned, that was fine as long as those were the only dreams they had about him.

Kate felt guilty about accepting gifts. The Castle budget could easily cover anything a baby would ever need - and then some. But her friends enjoyed picking out baby things, and Kate wasn't about to ruin their fun. She just made sure that Lanie put the word out the that no one was to spend too much or even feel obligated to spend anything at all. Kate hated to admit it, but the nesting urge had overtaken her full force. Not only had she and Castle settled on the perfect crib, but the perfect dresser, changing table, and baby bath. It went without question that the seat that would protect Jo on the way home from the hospital would be the highest rated one on the market. She couldn't resist the tiny blankets and whimsical onesies either. She had dutifully attended a lot of baby showers over the years, but until now, she'd never understood what all the fuss was about.

"What the hell!" Lanie exclaimed as something flew into the room.

"Nothing to be alarmed about," Castle assured her. "That is a child monitoring drone. It is capable of sending and receiving telemetry on temperature and respiration. It can also raise an alarm if an unauthorized person enters the baby's perimeter. It's not that advanced, really. I wanted an Or-B robot, which has full facial recognition and a complete library of Teletubby episodes, but the Japanese are not rolling out the prototype until 2018, so right now, the drone is the best I could do."

Ryan couldn't take his eyes off the almost silent hovering device. He drew Castle aside. "Jenny and I haven't told anyone yet because it's so early, but we're expecting. You know where I could get one of those things that I could afford?"

Castle patted him on the back. "Don't worry, Ryan. I know a guy."

A/N Yes, the Japanese are really working on that android, in fact, a whole robotic child care center. I embellished the drone, a bit.


	67. Chapter 67

Emergence

Chapter 67

"What's your excuse going to be for changing your mind?" Castle asked. "Maternal instincts just too strong?"

"I wouldn't have any problem making that convincing," Kate realized, "but no. I'm going to tell Blount that my father is terminally ill and his wish is to see a grandchild before he dies. I can add that after the tragic way I lost my mother, I can't bear to disappoint my father. Dad's in London right now doing some seminars. If Blount wonders about that, I can say there's some treatment in Europe that's not approved in the U.S."

"I still don't like it, Kate. Getting him to come after you is extreme. Can't Weston's people just trace the financial transactions? The Southern District is supposed to excel at that kind of thing. I would imagine he'd make his buyers pay for the baby ahead of time."

"He will, Castle. But that won't help us to get him on kidnapping charges. The women who were kidnapped never saw him participate. We need a direct connection. It will be fine. The FBI will be on top of me the whole time. No one will even get close."

"Where have I heard that before? Can't they just have someone who looks like you wear one of those phony bellies or something? This isn't just about you, Kate. This is about our child."

"Which makes it even less dangerous, Castle. If Jo is harmed, Blount blows his entire deal. He's not going to risk that. This operation is safer than if I was just sitting at my desk back at the Twelfth."

"Considering some of the things that went on at the Twelfth, that doesn't make me feel any better."

"Jo and I'll be fine, Babe."

"I'm driving you to the office. I want to make sure the men with the bad haircuts and earpieces are awake."

Kate sighed. "Fine, Castle."

Castle made sure what he needed was in his car before he took Kate to work. He could see the Feebies on duty, but the fact that he spotted them so easily, didn't inspire confidence. After Kate was safely inside the U.S. Attorney offices, he hit the release for his trunk and pushed a few buttons on a controller. He never saw Jack Nolan watching him.

Jack stared through his scope. "What the hell is that boy doing?" He'd figured Richard would try something, but he hadn't pictured that. He shrugged. It wouldn't interfere with his surveillance. It could even come in useful. Richard might be more of a chip off the old block than he'd given him credit for.

The FBI tech monitored Kate as she phoned Blount. The baby broker's voice was smoothly cordial and sympathetic on the surface, but she could hear the sandpaper rasp of anger beneath his smarmy tones. She was sure he wouldn't give up that easily. She was counting on it.

* * *

It was two days later and Kate was impatient for something to happen. She'd taken the short walks her doctor had recommended in mid-morning and mid-afternoon. She'd seen no signs of anyone except her assigned guardians following her. The cabs she took home were driven by FBI agents, who watched to make sure she was safely inside the building housing Rick's loft, where others were controlling entry to the Castle home. On her early walk, Kate was trying to decide between the devil on her shoulder urging her to buy the salt-laden soft pretzel she was craving, or the angel insisting on a piece of fresh fruit, when a van pulled up to the curb.

"Never a cop around when you need one," the vendor complained. "There's not supposed to be any parking here, and having vehicles near my stand screws up my business."

Kate glanced around for her minders as the side door to the van opened. The FBI guards were close but not close enough. Three men in Halloween masks charged out of the van. One held a gun on the vendor while the other two grabbed her. "You fight us, we shoot him," the gun wielder warned. The two other men hoisted Kate into the van. One raised an injector.

Kate's hands flew protectively over her abdomen. "No, please!"

"Don't worry, lady. The doc assured us it won't hurt the baby. It will just put you out for a while, and when you wake up your troubles will be over and so will ours."

* * *

"Sonofabitch!" Jack and Rick exclaimed almost simultaneously from different locations, while monitoring Kate's abduction through the camera on Castle's drone. When Jack realized what his son had done, he'd had very little trouble gaining access to the signal. He could use the drone's GPS to track the van. He hoped his son would put out a call to law enforcement rather than trying to follow her himself, but he wouldn't have made book on it. Richard loved to be in the midst of the action. It was a family trait his son would stay healthier without. He shook his head. His granddaughter would probably get a double dose of it. Richard could have some even more interesting times ahead - after Jack tracked down the van and got Kate away from her kidnappers.

There was no way his Mercedes would be fast enough for Castle at that moment. He would have to take the Ferrari. The ever-vigilant Lanie had made sure Esposito was on alert, and Castle had called him, but there was no way Rick could not still go after his wife himself. He stuck his tracker to the dash of the agile sports car and peeled out of underground parking as fast as he could.

The van drove through a roll-up metal door, which descended behind it, leaving the drone outside. Jack Nolan approached the hideout where Kate had been taken, in a nondescript but highly modified black Ford. He carefully emerged from the car. He held a deadly blade, not willing to risk a stray bullet endangering Kate or the baby. Castle arrived seconds later, exploding from his Ferrari and tackling a man holding a knife, outside the structure where he'd tracked the van carrying Kate.

Jack flipped his son to the ground, suppressing his natural reflex to take out his attacker with extreme prejudice. "Richard, I'm on your side. "I'm here to help Kate."

Castle struggled against the knee on his back. "How the hell am I supposed to believe that?"

"Because you'd be dead if I weren't telling the truth. I could have slit your throat ten times over by now. They have your wife. They don't need you. They won't need her either, once the baby is born. Use the twisted brain that weaves the intricate plots in all those lurid books of yours. I'm one of the good guys. So, stop fighting me and let's go get her back."

Jack relaxed his hold, but he was ready to knock his son out if he tried something stupid that would keep the older man from going after Kate. But when Castle got to his feet, he just gave Jack a gaped mouth stare before nodding. "Let's do it!"

Jack pointed to a smaller, side door. "Going in that way will be quieter and create a lot less notice." He picked the lock in less than five seconds, then peered in cautiously before motioning Rick to follow. The van was parked on a concrete floor, next to two cars. Several unlabeled doors led off the warehouse-like area into the rest of the building.

"Now what?" Castle asked.

His companion flashed him an eerily familiar grin. "Now we figure out which door hides the lady and do our best to avoid any tigers."


	68. Chapter 68

Emergence

Chapter 68

Papers slid, and pens rattled as Javier Esposito kicked his desk. "Fuck!"

Ryan put a hand on his partner's shoulder. "Whoa man, that's not gonna help."

"I can't help it, bro. I wish to hell the captain wasn't out of town. It's Beckett and the baby! And Castle will probably go charging in there too, but the N.Y.P.D. will sit on its freakin' ass because the FBI has jurisdiction."

"Not all of the N.Y.P.D." Ryan put a hand to his forehead. "I don't know about you, Javi, I but I feel that flu that's been going around coming on. You look kinda warm to me, too."

Esposito pulled at the neck of his shirt. "You know, Kevin, you're right."

"And we should get out of here immediately before we infect the rest of the squad." Kevin declared.

Esposito started toward the elevator. "Ahead of you, bro."

* * *

Jack pulled a thin flexible tube out of his pocket and threaded it under one of the doors. He fixed his eyes on the screen of his phone. "No sign of Kate," he whispered. "Just three guys playing cards. And they're all doing a bad job of trying to cheat. Let's try the next one." Jack regarded his feed. "Storage. Surgical supplies, food, toilet paper."

"Surgical supplies," Castle repeated. "What are they going to do to my wife?"

Jack's jaw tightened. "She's not going to be here long enough for us to find out." He scanned the third room. "She's in there, lying on a bed. She looks unconscious. Probably drugged. She's got a guard sitting with her, but he's not paying much attention. He's got a tablet. From the drool at the corner of his mouth and the bulge in his crotch, he's looking at porn. That's good. When we break in there, he won't be able to react before I take him out. The minute we get through this door, pick up your wife and get her away from here, as fast as you can." Jack held up his lock pick. "Ready?'

Castle nodded.

Jack didn't kill the bug-eyed guard. A dead body would be too messy and raise too many questions with the FBI if they ever made it there. He aimed a quick blow at the man's temple, hard enough to knock him out but not quite hard enough to make it permanent.

* * *

Ryan and Esposito arrived at the location Castle had given Javi, to find it surrounded by black SUVs and agents in conference. Esposito banged his hands against the steering wheel. "They're just standing there with their thumbs up their butts."

"Javi, you know what they're doing, probably better than they do. They're scoping the place out, trying to figure how to go in there without getting Kate and the baby killed."

"But that means we can't go in there either."

"So, we'll wait," Ryan counseled. "If there is something we can do, we'll be here to do it."

* * *

At first, Kate thought she was dreaming. She knew the feel of the arms around her. She recognized the scent that always made her want to burrow into his body. It was Castle, and he was running. As she opened her eyes, she could feel the raggedness of his breathing. He kicked a door open, and her eyes were assaulted by sunshine as she heard the sound of guns being cocked. "Don't shoot!" she cried.

Esposito and Ryan jumped out of their unit, flashing their badges. "We know him," Esposito explained, his arms up. "Damn fool came to rescue his wife."

Kate realized Castle had taken her out of her kidnapper's den. The men pointing guns at Castle were FBI. "Dammit, stand down!" she shouted, feeling suddenly wet. "Javi, Kevin," I'm going to need you."

"Kate, do you want us to get you home?" Ryan asked.

"No, the hospital," Kate explained. "I think my water just broke."

When the FBI breached the building, they found all of Kate's captors unconscious. The mystery man who had knocked them out would never be identified. Jack Nolan, having slipped out during the fray, was already on the way to his next destination.

Gumball flashing and siren screaming, Esposito and Ryan opened a path through New York City traffic for Castle's Ferrari. "Contractions yet?" Castle asked as he maneuvered the sleek vehicle, with Kate as comfortable as possible in the soft leather of the passenger seat.

"Not yet," Kate said. "But I'm soaking your car. I got your shirt pretty good too."

"Like I care," Castle ground out. "Damn! I wish Espo would drive faster."

"I think he's got it floored, Castle. Police units have power, but they're not Ferraris."

"Maybe the city should buy a few," Castle groused. "I'll have to talk to Weldon about it."

Kate winced. "Fuck! It's starting! That was no Braxton-Hicks. You can worry about better equipment for the N.Y.P.D. later, Babe. Just drive."

* * *

The HIPAA privacy rules made it harder than Jack had anticipated monitoring hospital communications, but he managed. As far as he could tell, Kate was in labor, but it would be a while. He vaguely remembered family discussions about women giving birth from when he'd been growing up, but as a guy, had paid as little attention as possible, always preferring recountings of cop and spy stories. As a talented student of both martial arts and languages, he hadn't been surprised to be recruited by the CIA. If anything, he'd hoped for it. He'd regretted nothing until he'd heard about Martha giving birth to Richard. Then everything had changed. He was at the center of a constant tug of war between responsibility to his family and his country and profession. The arrival of Alexis had made the family pull just that much stronger, as had the impending birth of his second granddaughter. The one thing that puzzled him was that his incorrigibly curious son had never asked him for his name. Even in the heat of the moment, Jack had expected that. He'd been all ready to offer his favorite alias, Jackson Hunt, but it hadn't been necessary. Perhaps the boy had just been too worried about his wife, to care who the man helping to rescue her was. It seemed out of character, but possible. Still, the way Richard had stared at him suggested recognition. He just couldn't figure out how that could be possible."

* * *

As much as she'd hated the thought of getting near another needle, Kate had been grateful when the epidural had been inserted. Esposito had called Lanie, who'd rushed to the hospital. Both Alexis and Martha had shown up as well, as had Kate's Aunt Teresa. Kate wished her father wasn't in England, but she'd talked to him, and Castle had promised a Skype as soon as the baby was born. But as her delivery time neared, Castle was the only one she wanted with her. He stood beside the bed, holding her hand, his eyes shifting back and forth between the readout of the fetal monitor and her face. "You were right," she admitted. "It was dangerous and stupid letting myself and Jo be a target like that. Thank God you couldn't keep your nose out of it. Castle, I was pretty hazy, but I could have sworn there was someone with you."

"There was," Castle confirmed. "He was already set to go after you when I arrived."

"Who?" Kate asked. "Some special operative from the FBI?"

"Special operative, maybe, but I doubt he has anything to do with the FBI. Kate this is going to sound weird, but you remember when I dug up all those old pictures of the Nolan family?"

"Castle, how could I forget that?"

"The man who was with me was almost the spitting image of one of the men in them. Kate, if you put that together with what my mother said, I believe our mysterious benefactor was my father."

"Then why wouldn't he stay around?" Kate wondered.

"I told you, cops and spies run in the family. I think I just got to meet one of the latter, first hand. I just wonder if I'll ever get to see him again."


	69. Chapter 69

Emergence

Chapter 69

"The baby is fine, just perfect," Castle announced to the anxious assembly of family and friends. "She's seven pounds nine ounces, and has a pair of lungs our neighbors will no doubt come to despise. Kate will be up in her room in a little while, and you can see her and Jo then. I promised her I'd set up a Skype with Kate's father, I need to go do that."

Castle wandered off by himself. He would arrange the call with Jim Beckett in a few minutes. Right then, he just needed to breathe, something he hadn't done much of since Kate had been taken. He thought about getting a cup of coffee from the Starbucks in the lobby but decided that the last thing he needed was caffeine. He looked down at his wrecked clothing. He could use a shower and a change, but that would come later. He sank down on a bench and leaned his elbows on his knees. Kate was fine. She was tired, and there had been more blood than he'd remembered when Meredith had given birth to Alexis, but the doctor assured him there was nothing to worry about with either Kate or Jo. The baby had the right amount of everything, ten fingers, ten toes, one beautiful mouth. She had a full head of hair, the color of Kate's roots, but with a tiny streak of white. Long ago, Martha had told him that he'd been born with something similar, but it had vanished within a couple of weeks. Jo had also cried without the benefit of anyone slapping her beautiful baby bottom. She's kept it up until she was against Kate's breast. He knew the feeling. He wouldn't mind being there himself as soon as Kate was healed and up to it. He pulled his phone out his pocket, looked at the time across the top of the screen, and did some quick arithmetic. It was the middle of the night in London, but he very much doubted Jim Beckett would mind being awakened. The new grandfather probably wasn't asleep in the first place.

* * *

John Nolan examined the hospital records he'd hacked, with satisfaction. Kate and his granddaughter were both healthy. If he got the chance, he might even sneak a peek at little Jo in the nursery. He didn't have much time. His next assignment had come through. He would have to be in Yemen in less than two days. It was far from his favorite part of the world, but the choice was not his. At least while he was in New York, he'd managed to be a father and a grandfather. He'd carry that with him into the zones where life had lost its value.

* * *

Elizabeth Weston paged through the reports of the interrogations of the men who'd been captured by the FBI at the building where Kate Beckett had been taken when she was abducted. As a U.S. Attorney, she'd had some strong words with the FBI agent in charge of Kate's protective squad. If it had not been for both Kate's husband and her connections to the N.Y.P.D., things could have gone very badly. As it was, three of the four men captured would say nothing except to request an attorney. The fourth, who'd been found in the room where Kate Beckett had apparently been held, was a bonanza of information. He'd willingly given up the name of Corby Blount in exchange for whatever consideration he could get. On the charge of kidnapping a federal agent - and a pregnant one at that - the consideration wouldn't be much. He'd still be spending a long time behind bars, but he'd be in somewhat less threatening surroundings. He might even find someone to provide him with more of the titillating trash that had been found on his tablet.

There remained one unknown to the operation. Richard Castle hadn't knocked out the men who were found unconscious. Even if he had that capability, which Elizabeth doubted, he'd been too busy getting his wife out of there. He'd admitted there had been someone with him, but denied knowing the man's identity. Elizabeth had the feeling that Castle knew more than he was telling, but she wasn't about to use the time or resources of her office to go after someone who was essentially a hero. She had what she needed to convict Blount, so the mystery could remain a mystery.

* * *

Since Jo's baby seat had been installed in the Mercedes by a professional with unimpeachable credentials, it was that car, rather than the Ferrari, that Castle used to transport his most precious of passengers back to the loft. In any case, the Ferrari would require some serious detailing. Rick couldn't recall the last time he'd driven so cautiously, so much so that Kate had threatened to take the wheel herself. His spot in the underground garage was waiting, and he ushered his wife, who was carrying Jo, upstairs to where Alexis and Martha were waiting. Jo was busily making the French-sounding ah-lah's of a newborn. The great room was festooned with balloons and crepe paper, and Martha had set out a feast catered by a nearby Italian delicatessen. Jo's portable bassinet had been set up next to the table.

"Martha, that looks fantastic!" Kate exclaimed, eying the spread. "other than the incredible hamburger and shake Rick brought me from Remy's, this is the best-looking food I've seen in what seems like days."

* * *

"So, Kate, what are your plans now?" Martha asked as she dished out the pesto.

"I'll want to stay in touch with the office and make sure Blount gets put away, but I get a few weeks paid maternity leave, then up to six months unpaid leave if I want it."

"It's not like you need the money," Rick pointed out.

"I know, Babe," Kate acknowledged. "It's just that since I was fifteen, I've always worked at one kind of a job or another. I'm just not sure how I'll feel without one."

"I can tell you from my own experience that there is no more important role than that of mother," Martha said, "but I will admit, that even with Richard in my arms, I did feel the call of the stage."

"Which is no doubt, why I spent so many of the early years of my life in the wings," Castle commented.

Kate looked down at her daughter. "Right now, I can't imagine being more than a few feet from Jo."

Castle reached across the table to cup his wife's cheek.

* * *

At two A.M. Castle scooped up a fussy Jo from her bassinet next to the bed and gave her to Kate to nurse. He hadn't bothered to turn on a light. The dim glow from the never sleeping city was enough illumination. Warmth flowed through him as he watched his daughter root for one of the succulent buds he had so often enjoyed having between his own lips. "Castle, what are you staring at?" Kate asked.

"Meredith asked her doctor for one of those shots that women get when they don't want to breastfeed, so Alexis was stuck with a bottle. I bought her the best formula on the market, but that couldn't have been as good the real thing. I missed being in on this experience. Sometimes, when Alexis was a baby, I wished I could grow boobs so I could nurse her myself," Castle confided.

"I thought you might have wanted them because they'd be fun to play with," Kate teased.

"That too," Castle admitted. "But it's so beautiful watching the two of you. I can understand why there are so many Madonna and child paintings. I can't think of a moment in my life when I've felt more complete."

Kate reached for his hand. "Yeah, me either."


	70. Chapter 70

Emergence

Chapter 70

It was late August humid in New York City. Normally, Kate would have regarded it as a time to stay indoors enjoying the loft's excellent climate control system, but she and Jo both needed the outing. Not only did Kate crave the exercise her walks in the park afforded, but she needed the sleep she got because Jo was always more peaceful after enjoying the bumps and cracks that joggled her carriage on the walking paths. Rick also needed some quiet time to write, although Kate was amazed at what he could accomplish during the never-ending baby hubbub. Sleep deprivation was just beginning to ebb for both of them, and since she'd been home during the day, Kate realized just how much loss of shuteye Castle must have suffered over the years they'd worked together. She'd had no idea just how much time it took to write and rewrite his books. She imagined that when he was following her around at the Twelfth, his candle must have burned enough at both ends to leave the thinnest of slivers in the middle. It was no wonder that he'd only put out a book a year. It was amazing that he'd put out books at all. With three series going, she still didn't know how he managed, except that the shadows under his eyes had become more prominent. With Jo beginning to sleep through the night, Kate hoped that they'd both be getting a little more rest. Not that she would have given up the past few months for anything, she just wished she'd been more awake to enjoy them.

Kate's attention was caught by a man and a woman with a little boy, about thirty feet ahead of her and Jo. That they were not a happy group was obvious, but as she picked up on what the woman was saying, it became apparent that it was a lot worse than that. "I have a restraining order, Burke. You're not supposed to be anywhere near Billy or me."

"Yeah, well I don't see anyone around to enforce it, Callie," Burke sneered. "And a father has a right to see his son, regardless of what some judge says."

"You're not a father, you're a sperm donor," Callie accused. "Real fathers don't grab their son's arms hard enough to cause spiral fractures. They don't come home drunk." She picked up her son to comfort him as he began to sob. "See, all you do is scare him. Why don't you just go back to work, or the bar, or wherever you came from, and leave us alone."

"Because like it or not, Billy is my son, and I'm not going anywhere," Burke insisted.

"Yes, you are," Kate declared, coming up behind Burke.

"This is family business, lady," Burke insisted. "Stay out of it."

Kate's eyes hardened. "I can't do that. I spent too many years on the force keeping scumbags like you off the street, and I do have two of my best friends at the Twelfth Precinct on speed dial. I am sure they would have no problem showing you just what restraining order means. You're already in contempt of court. Don't make it any worse."

"Fine!" Burke spat out, beginning to walk away. He turned back over his shoulder, "Callie, this isn't over."

Callie pressed her fingers to her mouth as she watched the stiffened back of her ex-husband retreating. "Oh God! What do I do now? That bastard knows where Billy and I live. Ma'am, I know you meant well, but he'll show up again and next time will be worse."

Kate put a hand on her arm. "No, it won't. My name is Kate Beckett. I was a cop, and now I work for the U.S. Attorney's office. Well, I'm on leave, but I have lots of friends all over law enforcement. You and Billy come home with me. Neither one of you should have to live in fear. We'll figure this out."

* * *

Castle was gratefully finishing up a chapter when he heard Kate bring Jo back. He was surprised at the sound of additional voices. "Company?" he asked, popping out of his office.

Billy whimpered, and Callie stepped back. "This is my husband, Richard Castle," Kate hurriedly explained. "He may be able to help too."

"Always willing to help. Help with what?" Castle asked, before receiving a warning look from Kate.

"Maybe Billy would like to watch some of your vast collection of cartoons, Rick," Kate suggested.

"He likes Duck Tales," Callie suggested shyly.

"Well, then he's in luck!" Castle declared. "One of my favorites! Let's see what Scrooge McDuck is up to." Castle led the way to the big screen in his office and started a Disney stream. After Billy was settled on a large pillow, Rick motioned Callie back to the great room. "I'll leave the door open so you can keep an eye on him." He raised an eyebrow at Kate. "So, what's going on?'

"Babe, I'm going to put Jo down for a nap, and then we can talk about it."

* * *

"So, to summarize, Callie, you and Billy are being menaced by a poor excuse for a father, named Burke, and you need a safe place," Castle concluded.

Callie nodded.

"I thought I'd start the ball rolling to get him arrested," Kate said. "Maybe I can get the judge who gave Callie her restraining order to issue a bench warrant to have him picked up on the basis of my affidavit that Burke violated it."

"I can call Markway. If that judge is one of his golfing buddies, he might be able to goose him a little," Castle suggested. "But all of that is going to take some time, assuming that Burke can be pulled in at all. Mother is off doing summer stock. We can put Callie in her room for now, and Billy in the guest room, until we can find some other solution."

"I can't just invade your home," Callie protested. "You don't even know me."

"It's not an invasion, Callie," Kate insisted, "It's an invitation. I wouldn't feel right sending you and Billy home, knowing Burke is out there and I ticked him off even more."

* * *

Kate slammed down the phone in disgust. "Burke is still on the loose. Every woman's shelter I've called is full, and some of them even have waiting lists."

"Take a breath," Castle urged. "Callie and Billy are safe with us, for now."

"Yeah, but Castle, Callie's going to need to go to work. Burke knows where that is. He knows where Billy's daycare is too."

"Billy can stay with us," Castle pointed out. "And can't the patrol units in the area where Callie is working watch out for Burke? There is a warrant out for him, right?"

"There is, and I can call in some favors and see if I can make some surveillance happen, but cops don't come equipped with instant facial recognition, Castle. They can't watch out for everyone who has a warrant out on them. If they get lucky, a unit will catch someone in a traffic stop or something, but Burke could just be taking the subway. We need a much better way to handle people like him."

"Sounds like you have a cause," Castle noted. "And I may have some ideas. My father and I may have rescued you from Blount's henchmen, but it was tech that got us there. It's tech - and totally paranoid parents - that's helping keep Jo safe too. Maybe some combination of your law enforcement acumen and my passion for gadgetry can come into play for Callie and Billy."

Kate nibbled thoughtfully on her lip. "Yeah Babe, maybe it can."


	71. Chapter 71

Emergence

Chapter 71

Mira Goldstone almost fell over the threshold of the loft to embrace Kate. "My God, Katie, I haven't seen you since…."

"My mother's funeral," Kate finished. "I'm sorry, Mira. Back then I pushed everyone away, except Dad. I just couldn't handle… you know."

"Of course, I do, _meyn sheyn meydl_ ," the older woman said, hugging Kate harder. "So now, what brings you back into my world?"

"Mira, your whole career has been about helping families. There are a mother and son who need what is way beyond my experience to give them."

"I want you to tell me all about it, but while you do, perhaps we can have a cup of tea?"

Kate smiled. "The water's already boiling."

* * *

"So, if I have this straight," Mira recapped, "there is a sonofabitch named Burke Harcourt who has been terrorizing his ex-wife Callie, and their son Billy. There's warrant out for him, but the cops haven't been able to find him. Mother and son have both been staying here with you and that dreamy author husband of yours who has a drone watching to make sure Harcourt doesn't approach the store where Callie works. _Oy_! Katie, I'm just getting used to my newest iPhone. Drones are a little out there for me. Where are Richard and Billy right now?"

"Rick took him to the Bronx Zoo. The kid's never been, and Rick wanted to write a zoo scene into his next chapter, so it's a good outing for both of them. The drone watching Callie will send an alert to my phone if it recognizes Burke, so I can get the police to pick him up, but so far Burke hasn't come near Callie again."

Mira put a hand to her forehead. "Don't create _a beyz aoyg_. Thank God for small blessings. And where is your _tayer beibi_?

"Jo's asleep, but she should be up any minute." A wail piped through the speakers tuned to Jo's electronic minder. "And there she is."

"Baby monitor?" Mira asked.

"Nanny drone," Kate explained. "Rick bought it before Jo was born. It picks up the sound when she cries and communicates with sensors in her crib. Rick and I will get alerts through every device in the house if she runs a fever or stops breathing."

"God forbid that last one," Mira said. "So, this where the idea came from for the drone watching Callie?"

"Not exactly. Let's go check on Jo and I'll tell you about what happened." The two women went to get the baby from her room, then settled back at the table while Kate nursed and recounted her abduction.

Mira pressed her hand to her heart. "I can't imagine how frightening that must have been for both you and Rick, but God sends his angels in the strangest forms. So, amidst all this technology, what is it you would like me to do?"

"I've heard about a network of women supporting and protecting women, that's apart from conventional shelters. I thought you might be able to get Callie an interview."

"I can make some calls," Mira agreed, "but I can tell by that line that still appears near the bridge of your nose, that there's something else."

Kate sighed. "Good thing I don't play poker with you, Mira. Yes, there is. Rick and I came up with an idea that is a lot more practical than drones, to protect women who are threatened by jerks like Burke Harcourt. Rick did some research, and he says what we have in mind wouldn't be much different from the electronics that are used for parolees or to keep suspects out on bail, on house arrest. What we're proposing is that instead of just tracking someone by GPS or perimeter warnings, a scum like Burke who has a restraining order against him would have an anklet or an implant that would give an alert if he got too close to a device being worn by the person under the court's protection. Rick thought it could be a pendant or a brooch or something, that wouldn't be too obvious, so it wouldn't seem like the victim is being punished. If there's anyone who could push for something like that, it's you."

Mira nodded slowly. "It is a great idea, Katie. This husband of yours, he's not just a pretty face. You found yourself a real _mensch_."

"Yeah, I did," Kate agreed.

"You know Katie, if we're going to launch a campaign for these new devices, a little seed money wouldn't hurt."

Kate winked. "Did I mention that he's a rich _mensch_? Crazy plans like this are just the kind of thing he likes to fund.

* * *

Burke Harcourt punched his fist against the desk in his motel room. Damn bitch Beckett! He'd seen the cops going to his apartment, and he'd taken off before they saw him. It looked like there really was a warrant for his arrest. He'd managed to grab the clothes and things he needed after the cops had left, but for now, he was afraid to go home. He'd checked with a buddy at work. The cops had been there too, but the boss hadn't been around, so no one would call them on him when he went back to his meal ticket. He took a deep pull from his bottle and sank down on the bed feeling a bit better. When he thought about it, he really didn't have much to be scared of. It's not like he was a real criminal. The cops would forget about him in a day or two, and things would go back to normal. His credit cards and his debit card still worked. Once he was out of this fleabag, he'd get back to finding Callie and Billy. He'd watched Billy's daycare, and the boy hadn't been there. But he had a pretty good idea where to look for Callie. She wasn't smart enough to get a decent job, and the store where she worked wasn't exactly big on giving employees breaks or days off. Hell, she'd even had to be there after Thanksgiving dinner the year before, leaving Billy to be a pain in the ass while he was trying to watch his football games. She'd have to show up for her job, or she wouldn't have one - and she couldn't afford that. Even working overtime, the bitch hadn't been able to bring home half the money he did. It almost wasn't worth it for her to work at all. She knew it too, and she wanted to go back to school, so she could learn to do something better. No way he was going to allow that. She had way too many fucking female ideas in her head already, and who could figure what she was putting into Billy's brain. Next thing he knew, the boy would be wearing pink. He'd knock some sense into her and teach Billy about being a man. It was just a matter of time. Callie's shifts were constantly changing, another way her job stank, but he'd find her. When he did, he'd make her tell him where she was hiding Billy. Then he'd shut her up and get the boy. He took another swig of whiskey. He should have shut Callie up a long time ago instead of letting her get a divorce and a restraining order. That's what came from being too soft. He took another drink. He wasn't going to be soft anymore. He was going to be as hard as a rock, and Callie and Billie would know just who was in charge. His bottle slid from his fingers as he fell back on the bed. Burke Harcourt would not be showing anyone anything, at least until the next morning.


	72. Chapter 72

Emergence

Chapter 72

An alarm screeched on Kate's phone, echoed by one on Castle's cell. Their eyes met as they simultaneously uttered, "Harcourt." Kate hurriedly contacted N.Y.P.D. dispatch to send uniforms to the store where Callie was working. "Even if they get him, he may not be put away for long," Kate said, her lips thinning.

"Has your friend Mira managed to find a Women's Protective Network connection for Callie?"

Kate nodded. "She thinks so. Callie is supposed to have her meeting late this afternoon. With any luck, Callie and Billy will have a more permanent safe place to live, and they'll help her to find a more secure job nearby."

"And what about our electronic brainstorm?"

"Mira said she started the ball rolling with the information we sent her. She talked to some friendly judges and probation people she knows. She wants us to let her know about a schedule for producing prototypes."

"Mm. I touched base with a design house recommended by correspondents on my gadget sites. It's called Inventive Minds, and they're supposed to be able to handle the production of the drawings and prototypes. I have a meeting with them to get the details, around the same time as Callie will be at the Women's Protective Network, but I hate to run off if Harcourt hasn't been picked up."

"Dispatch will let me know. It shouldn't be long."

"I could use some fresh coffee, while we're waiting." Castle said. "You want some?'

"Please."

* * *

Burke Harcourt was confused and furious. He had no idea how the cops could have known where he was, let alone that he was anywhere near Callie, but they arrested him. Now he was in a cell waiting to see the judge, and that asshole could do anything. It was all the fault of Callie and her friend Beckett. He paced the small space, his feet stomping against the floor. "If it weren't for cooking, cleaning, taking care of kids and fucking," he swore to himself, "the world would be a much better place without women."

"Hey Harcourt!" an officer called through the wire mesh of Burke's holding cell. "Don't get too comfortable in there. Your judge has a full docket, so we'll be shipping you to Rikers Island until you get a court date."

Harcourt pictured himself in a prison full of dirty, sweaty, tattooed bodies. His hands fisted hard enough to draw blood from his palms. Callie would pay for this. Beckett too. And damn! He needed a drink!

* * *

Bernie Shultz, of Inventive Minds, was tall, thin, balding and never seemed to stop moving. He extended a hand to Castle and waved him to a chair. "I've been studying your idea, Mr. Castle. It is very interesting and should be fairly simple to engineer. Essentially, we are talking about proximity sensors, which are already employed in a number of sectors. Building a prototype should be fairly straightforward, we'll program a 3-D computer rendering and we will be able to print much of it on a 3-D printer. Then it will just be a matter of inserting the engine and electronic components. Our engineers handle much more difficult projects on a regular basis. Often, with a product such as yours, we'll help a client start a crowdfunding campaign to pay for the initial set-up and marketing. I understand that in your case that will not be necessary."

Castle nodded. "That's correct. In any case, I don't want to waste the time it will take for Indiegogo or Kickstarter to go through that process. I can provide whatever fees you need to get started."

"How about a patent?" Shultz inquired. "There is considerable prior art, but none for this specific application. A utility patent for a new use for existing technology may be possible. I can have my patent agent look into it. Or we could file a provisional patent. Provisional patents aren't examined but can serve as a placeholder for a year until we figure out if your idea is marketable. They are relatively inexpensive. Basically, if you have one, you can claim your invention is 'patent pending.'"

Castle shrugged. "I wasn't looking to put any legal restrictions on making the system. If anything, free access to it should make the world a safer place."

"Even so," Shultz pointed out, "if you want to license it to someone who'll bear the costs of full-scale production, a patent is helpful. It never looks bad on your curriculum vitae, either."

Castle rolled his eyes. "At this point, I don't think what's on my resume would make much difference to me, but you can go ahead with the provisional if you think it's a good idea. Put my name and my wife's, Katherine Houghton Beckett, on it."

"Fine, fine," Shultz agreed. "I'll put your quote together. You can set up payment with our business office, and we'll get started."

* * *

Kate looked up from the rocking chair where she was feeding Jo, as Castle came into the room. "How did your meeting with Inventive Minds go, Babe?"

"It seemed to me that what they're most inventive about is cash flow - their own, but I got a look at some of the things they've produced. I believe they can get the job done. Between them on the production end and Mira's contacts, we stand a good chance of getting the project moving. Billy napping?"

Kate nodded. "Uh huh. He got down with one of those kiddy exercise videos, Hop Along with the Hopster. It really tired him out."

Castle stroked the stubble forming on his jawline. "We'll have to file that bit of experience away. Maybe we'll get lucky, and it will work on Jo when she's older. One can only hope. What's the news on Harcourt?"

"Sent to Rikers and expected to stay there for a while."

"Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. That calls for a least a minor celebration. We could send out for something. I've noticed Billy never says no to either pizza or fried chicken."

"Who does, Castle? But I'm more in the mood for something juicy."

Castle quirked an eyebrow. "Really?"

Kate laughed. "I didn't mean that. Well, yeah, maybe later. But there are some of those ribeye steaks you love so much, in the fridge. Your standing order from the butcher was delivered this afternoon. We could cut up a piece for Billy. I'll bet Callie would enjoy one too."

"Meaning she might enjoy ripping something apart with her teeth while imagining a certain miscreant. I'm in," Castle agreed. "I'll get the grill warmed up and throw the steaks on when Callie gets here."

Kate gazed down at her daughter. "Jo's finished nursing, but she's not asleep. Would you like to hold her for a while, give her the special Castle bouncy walk?"

Rick held out his arms. "I can think of nothing I'd like better. Well, almost nothing."

Pulling herself out of her chair, Kate squeezed one of Rick's well rounded, lower set of cheeks. "Like I said, later."

"Definitely something to look forward too, besides a steak dinner."

"Castle, with any luck, Jo will sleep through the night again, or at least long enough to give us some time. Callie and Billy can join us for our main course, but the late-night dessert will be all ours."

Carefully holding Jo against the diaper draped over his shoulder, Rick leaned down to kiss his wife. "That's one part of a meal I would never want to miss. It's a date."


	73. Chapter 73

Emergence

Chapter 73

Kate and Mira each held one of Callie's hands as she sat between them in the courtroom. Callie turned to Kate. "I'm glad Billy is with your husband today. He likes our new apartment, and he likes his new daycare, but he always feels secure with Rick. I guess Rick is an example of how a father is supposed to act."

Kate squeezed her hand. "You know Castle loves to do anything he can for you and Billy. So, do I. Hold on. Here it comes."

Burke Harcourt rose defiantly next to his lawyer as the judge made his ruling. "Mr. Harcourt, not only did you ignore the order of this court on at least two documented occasions, you created fear of physical harm while doing so. As such, you have committed criminal contempt in the first degree, a class E felony punishable by a fine of up to $5000 and imprisonment for up to four years. Given your continuing attitude toward this court and your lack of acknowledgment of the seriousness of your crime, I am inclined to impose the maximum sentence. In the case of your incarceration, I am imposing a sentence of four years. I am also imposing the maximum fine, but I will be suspending it. In accordance with an order from the family court, already in force, your assets are being attached to pay support for your son William. I believe that the use of any monies you possess for such support, will best serve the interests of justice. You will be transported back to Rikers Island temporarily and serve your sentence in Ossining Correctional Facility.

Callie numbly left the courtroom. "I can't believe it. Burke is going away to prison for four years, and I'll have support payments for Billy."

Mira pursed her lips and shook her head. "I wish the judge could have thrown away the key, but he did the best he could."

"I doubt that Burke will enjoy his time in Sing-Sing," Kate said. "He may get more than a little taste of the fear he made you and Billy feel every day. At least you'll be free of that. What do you want to do now, Callie?"

"First thing, go hug my son. And my new job isn't bad. But I want more for myself and Billy. When I told Burke that I wanted to go back to school, he just laughed at me and told me I was too stupid. But after working with Mira, and getting to know some of the women in the protection network, I don't believe that anymore. I can do better, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I can take courses online until Billy's older, and then I'll see where I can go from there."

Mira caught Callie in a breath-stealing hug. " _Mazel tov_! All the luck in the world to you and to Billy."

"I second that," Kate said. "Let's go to the loft and break the good news." She put a hand on her overfilled breasts. "And I really need to go feed Jo."

Callie's mouth twitched upward. "I remember that feeling."

* * *

"You know," Castle said after Callie and Billy had departed from Broome Street, "Harcourt being sent up the river is wonderful, but it's not the only good news I've heard today."

Kate dropped down next to him on the couch. "What's up, Babe?"

"While you were in court, I got a call from Bernie Shultz at Inventive Minds. Shigeta is interested in taking a license to produce our monitoring system. They want to market it, not just all over the U.S., but around the world."

"Wow! They sure have the bucks to do that," Kate said. "They have profits in the billions."

"And assets in the trillions," Castle added. "The question is, what do we want to get out of this. Even without anything but a provisional patent, we can start the lawyers negotiating the license agreement. Shultz tells me that if and when a regular U.S. patent is granted, and we get corresponding patents around the world, licensing income would normally rise considerably. But we never went into this for the money, just to help out people like Callie."

"That's right," Kate agreed, "still, we could use whatever income we get from Shigeta to do that."

"I could tell that something's been percolating in your mind for a while now," Castle said. "Care to share your ruminations?"

"I've been thinking about a lot of things," Kate admitted. "First of all, I'm not sure I want to go back to the U.S. Attorney's office after my leave is up."

"Okaaay, I never expected that. What do you want to do?"

"Jo is growing and changing so much every day. I want to be there to watch her every minute I can. But seeing what Callie went through, and working with Mira, I want to do something - besides putting our monitoring device out there - to help the women and their children who are being terrorized by monsters like Burke Harcourt. I thought maybe we could use the money for that. And Callie's not the only one who wants to go back to the books. When Jo is old enough, I want to go to law school."

"Follow in your mother's footsteps?" Castle asked.

"In a way. She was passionate about fighting for the rights of people who couldn't fight on their own. I want to specialize in family law; become an advocate for women and children, like Mira is. I don't want Jo to grow up in the kind of world that Callie had to face."

Castle drew her to him, kissing the top of her head. "That's incredible! I don't think you could pay your mother or our daughter any greater honor. And if you use Shigeta's money to do it, all the better. If you're going to emulate the indefatigable Mira, does that mean I'll need a crash course in Yiddish?"

Kate laughed and snuggled into his shoulder. You shouldn't need to understand much more than some New York comedians spout in their acts. But I think you totally grasp what Mira is putting out to the world anyway - in whatever language. As an edible expression of sisterhood, she gave me some of her homemade blintzes. They're in the freezer. And they're not just the cheese kind. She puts cherries in them. I asked her to email me the recipe."

Castle buried his nose in Kate's hair, where the slightest whiff of her shampoo remained. "I always have been partial to the smell of cherries."

"I can pan fry the blintzes for breakfast, make them crisp, but gooey inside."

Castle brushed his fingertips across her cheek. "And what kind of gooey treat would you like to indulge in now? Surely this is a day worthy of celebration."

"Yes, it is." Kate checked her watch. "Jo should be down for at least another hour."

"With a tummy full of Becketty goodness," Castle added.

Kate scrunched her nose. "At least until it makes it to her diaper. Maybe we should take a nap of our own."

"I think we might want to do a little something to make ourselves sleepy, first," Castle suggested, wiggling his eyebrows.

Kate slipped her hand between his thighs. "We might at that."

Castle shifted suddenly, scooping her into his arms. "Then now, my beautiful sexy defender of downtrodden womanhood, time for some afternoon delight."


	74. Chapter 74

Emergence

Chapter 74

As annoying as slogging through New York slush was, Kate had been nostalgically dreaming of Jo's first Christmas as white, or least as white as snow could be in the city. It wasn't going to happen. The jet stream had wandered northward, keeping the colder air trapped above it. The temperature was in the '60's and rain showers intermittently soaked shoppers. It was more like April than December, except that the no flowers would spring up in response to the generous application of moisture to the ground.

In no way was the weather going to deter Kate from taking Jo Christmas shopping. Castle had converted Jo's carriage to a stroller, complete with a protective canopy. The busily babbling infant was wrapped up in an impossibly precious baby slicker Kate had received as a shower present. Kate herself was in an overpriced Burberry raincoat that Castle had insisted on purchasing for her, to ward off any chance that she would develop holiday sniffles.

Downtown wasn't as Kate remembered it on her youthful forays with her mother. Some of the most iconic department stores had closed, and niche boutiques had sprung up to take their place. Still, the windows shone with seasonal decorations, even if they didn't match the climate. Kate's attention was drawn by a particular display of licensed superhero gear for both adults and children. It had all the hallmarks of a double score. She could buy something battle worthy for Jo, maybe a Supergirl onesie with matching baby boots, and also find something Castle would love. Pulling the door to the store open, she pushed Jo's stroller through.

Because it was late morning, Kate expected that the bulk of shoppers would appear later, during their lunch hours. In the lull, it was easy to slowly peruse the aisles of brightly colored merchandise. "Boo," Jo suggested as Kate paused in front of a rack of Superman robes.

"Yes, they are blue," Kate responded. "You think Daddy would like one?"

Jo waved her feet. "Boo, boo, boo, da, da, da."

"Hmm," Kate considered, "he is really much more a fan of Batman."

"Ba," Jo agreed.

"But he already has a Darth Vader Robe," Kate continued., "and he loves it."

She found another rack. "Here we go, Green Lantern pajamas. They even come with a power ring. He'll love that. He does a perfect imitation of the Green Lantern from those animated movies he likes. I think his voice actually sounds a little like the actor who plays the role. What do you think about something for your big sister Alexis?"

"Le," Jo repeated.

"She still likes cosplay," Kate continued. "Your daddy's head nearly exploded when he saw what she wore to Unicon. What little there was of it was made of fur, and I don't see anything like that here. Well, at least we've found presents for you and Daddy."

Kate spied some activity two aisles over. "What the…?" She could see a teenager, with café mocha skin and slightly slanted green eyes, grabbing merchandise from a table and stuffing it between her legs. Kate was tempted to confront the shoplifter herself but wasn't about to do it when she had Jo with her. Shifting her eyes to the register, she caught the eye of the clerk and pointed. The clerk signaled to the security guard at the front of the store, who collared the teen on her way out. As Kate was paying for her own merchandise, she could see the girl dissolving into tears as the police were called. Kate's stomach wrenched as she remembered doing a few things herself as a teenager that might have warranted an arrest - had she been caught. Some of those adventures were the result of hanging out with a boyfriend who had turned out to be a pathological liar. Still, if she'd been less lucky, things might have turned out very differently. The resulting stigma could have followed her throughout her life. She looked down at her daughter, hoping that Jo would skip the wild child stage, or at least not do anything irretrievable when teen rebellion set in. She couldn't help wondering what would happen to the young thief, who might have gotten away with her ploy if it hadn't been for Kate's cop-trained eyes. She would use some of her new contacts to check on the girl later.

* * *

Anger flashed from Deana Landis' eyes when she saw Kate at the youth facility. "I remember you. You're the one who narced on me. What are you doing here, anyway? Trying to get me into more trouble? Where'd you stow your rug rat?"

"My daughter is with my husband, and no, I didn't come here to make more trouble for you. I came to see if I could get you out of trouble. I have a few friends in the system, and I found out that this is not your first time. You've been grabbing things for years, mostly cheap junk. But graduating to a booster box in an upscale store has moved you up the criminal ladder into grand theft. You could get some real time in juvie. Why'd you do it?"

"As if you cared! And juvie is better than where I've been."

"You may not believe it, but I do care. Where have you been?"

Deana crossed her arms and shook her head. "Screw you! I don't have to tell you anything."

* * *

"So, what did the unsuccessful criminal mastermind tell you?" Castle inquired when Kate returned to the loft.

"Not much," Kate admitted, "but I got the idea that she's been in some pretty miserable circumstances. I did a little checking before I came home. Deana was abandoned when she four, and she was in pretty bad shape when she was found, not an attractive prospect for adoption. Being mixed race didn't help. She's been passed around from foster home to foster home and ran away from the last one. From her attitude, it might have been an abusive situation. I'll be checking that out more. Anyway, it looks like she was trying to steal stuff she could sell to other kids, to get enough money to survive on the streets."

"Then it's probably just as well that you caught her. God knows what would have happened if she'd been enlisted by a pimp or a drug dealer."

"Yeah, but I hate to think about what's going to happen to her in juvie. She could learn some larcenous skills that will eventually land her in a real prison."

"I can see the wheels turning, Kate," Castle said. "What are you planning to do?"

"I thought I'd at least see that she gets a decent lawyer instead of a public defender with umpteen other cases and two minutes to talk to Deana. Then maybe she can get a better placement."

"You really feel sorry for this girl, don't you? Or is it guilt over getting her caught?"

"Both," Kate admitted. "But I see something in her. I don't know what, but I feel like she deserves something better than ending up behind bars because she had a lousy start in life. I want to see that she gets a break."

"Have I told you how stupendous you are, lately?" Castle asked.

"Last night, but you can tell me again."

"You are stupendous, amazing, incredible, and remarkable, even when you're stubborn and infuriating."

Kate palmed his cheek. "Babe, you really should have stopped at remarkable."


	75. Chapter 75

Emergence

Chapter 75

Kate carefully positioned tinsel on the branches of the towering fir in the great room of the loft. The tree glittered as light reflected from exquisitely blown glass balls. "This will be the last year for a long time we'll be able to use those," Castle said pointing at the gleaming ornaments. "Next year Jo will be walking. She'll want to stick interesting toys and baubles in her mouth. Hell, she might even want to climb the thing. We're going to have to go the way of the non-toxic and unbreakable. It's a good thing I still have the safety ornaments stored away from Alexis' toddler years. Some of them still marks from her baby teeth on them. Of course, the collection will have to be updated. A lot of new chewable characters have come out since then. But we can worry about that next August. That's when the good stuff usually shows up in the stores and online. And speaking of good stuff in the stores, what's the latest on Deana?"

"Like I already told you, the judge agreed to probation, if social services can find the right family to ride herd on her and keep her out of trouble. For a while, I thought that wasn't going to happen, but now it looks like it might. There's a couple, a pastor and his wife. From what I heard, he's one of those ministers who was put in charge of youth because he'd been in so much trouble growing up himself, the kids couldn't put anything over on him."

"Uh huh, I know the type. There was one who like that who was in charge of the fencing class I took when I was a teen. Always three steps ahead of whatever infamy I tried to pull off. Very frustrating, but I came to respect him a lot. He was damn good with an epee, too."

"Ah, your Obi-Wan. Anyway," Kate continued, "the boy that's been with them for years is aging out of the system. He turns eighteen in a couple of days. The minister and his wife helped the kid line up a job and his own place to stay. They'll still be mentoring him, but they are ready to take on a new project, and it looks like they'll be a good fit for Deana. With any luck, she'll be with them before Christmas."

"Very cool, Kate. That sounds like the kind of Christmas story that makes for a feel-good movie on the Hallmark Channel."

"Mm, I just hope the ending is as happy as it is in those movies. Deana has a lot to overcome. You know, Babe, you and I are a lot like the good reverend."

Castle's brows rose. "Kate, we're a lot of things, but I wouldn't class any of them as holy."

"That's not what I meant, Castle," Kate replied, shaking her head. "You and I both went through our wild years. You were still living through yours when we started working together."

"You forced me to toe the line pretty fast," Castle recalled.

"That's just it. You were the bad boy, and I was the rebel. We haven't been through what Deana has, but we have a good handle on the behavior of kids like her."

Castle turned to his wife, his broad hands covering her slim shoulders. "What are you trying to tell me, Kate?"

"I'm saying that there aren't enough decent foster families out there, especially ones who can handle kids like Deana. I think we should try to get certified."

"Wow! Are you sure you can handle that, with Jo still so young? Are you sure I can handle it or that we're even qualified?"

"I don't know Castle. There's a process, with classes and training. Part of that could help me understand some aspects of family law later. It seems like everything will fit together. It will take a while to find out if we can make it happen. But I know I want to try."

"Kate, you know how I feel about kids. It breaks my heart to see any child getting a raw deal. So, if you're sure that's what you want to do, I'm with you."

Kate wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. "I love you."

Castle drew her against his body. "You'd better."

* * *

Jack Nolan stared up at the windows of his son's loft. He'd managed to make it back to New York just in time to watch a giant Christmas tree being delivered to Casa Castle. It had been quite an operation, requiring the services of four heavily muscled men. He could imagine how the mass of greenery was decorated. Over the past few years, he'd seen pictures Alexis had posted of family Christmases. Martha was glorious with her special élan. Alexis had the glow that came as much from happiness as from her beautiful face, a legacy from both Martha and Alexis' otherwise useless mother. And Richard was Richard. Over the years he'd observed his son to be both annoying and charming. Jack added brave to the list, after the rescue of his daughter-in-law. The boy had proved he could come through under pressure. As little influence as Jack had as a father, he still found it gratifying to see that trait in his son. He just wished he could see more. He was tempted to bug the loft. It wouldn't be hard to do. He could intercept the feed from Jo's nanny drone, as he'd intercepted the signal from the drone that had kept watch over Kate. Still, even for someone in his line of work, it seemed over the top to do that kind of surveillance on his own family, tempting as it might be. There had to be another way. He'd see what he could figure out.

* * *

"Martha," long-time agent Morey Gellmer insisted, "as opportunities go, this isn't much of one. That gala will be full of names, a lot of them bigger than yours. The only place your red-carpet photos will show up is on Google. I don't understand what you think you'll get out of it. And I know I'll be getting bupkus. Ten percent of nothing is nothing."

"Morey, if you're going to steal lines, don't do it from my son's favorite sci-fi show, especially since that one came from a pretty scurrilous character. But the point isn't what I'll get out of it. The event is for a great cause, to provide special holidays for the children of injured first responders. We both lived through 9/11. We know what heroes those men and women were and still are. I'm happy to make whatever contribution I can. Besides, it will be fun. When was the last time this city had a full out traditional costume ball? And I'm not talking about the afterparties for the Tony Awards. Everyone from the theatrical community will be involved, not just actors, but costume designers, make-up artists, and hairdressers. Even the prosthetics makers will be doing their part. Whatever small part I can play, I'll play, even if it does mean turning down a run in that play in Philadelphia."

Morey sighed. "There's nothing more stubborn than a redhead unless it's a redheaded actor. Obviously, there's nothing I can say to change your mind. Do the gala, Martha. I'll see what I can dig up for you that actually pays, for next year."


	76. Chapter 76

Emergence

Chapter 76

"Two days until Christmas," Castle said as he carefully outlined a frosting lightsaber, on a home-baked sugar cookie.

Kate sipped a mug of hot mulled cider. "Mm, and I just heard that Deana is now officially a preacher's kid, so everything is falling into place."

"Not everything. Mother is disconcerted by the role she's assuming at the gala tonight. She's not crazy about going as the Dame Judi Dench version of M. In her mind; she's still an ingenue. The image in the mirror always comes as a rude surprise."

"I think your mother looks fantastic. I hope I look half that good when I'm a grandmother. I would have thought she'd enjoy being part of a spy tableau."

"She'd rather play a spy in a play or a movie. She's never been keen on holding poses, even if it's for photographs that will be auctioned off for a fortune. You know Hurricane Martha, a flurry of constant motion. I don't know how she manages yoga. I believe she's moving in her mind while she meditates. And I think she wishes she could still pull off your character."

Kate smoothed her hands over her hips. "I've always loved Diana Riggs' version of Emma Peel, even if she played her before I was born. In that era, the women were mostly cowering in a corner while some man stepped in to save them. More often than not, Emma was saving John Steed. She was a strong independent woman, but she kept the love of her husband in her heart and was reunited with him at the end of her story arc. That was ruined in the movie with Uma Thurman, when Mrs. Peel and Steed slept together."

"Considering that I'm wearing the bowler hat and carrying the brolly tonight, I hope you will have lost your objections to a meeting of more than minds between Emma and John."

Kate winked. "I can shed my role with my costume - assuming I'll be able to get the thing off. That leather fits tighter than the glove in the OJ trial."

Castle wiped his hands on a towel before trailing a finger down the curves of her body. "I assure you that I can render any assistance you may require."

* * *

The charity gala was not Jack Nolan's normal type of assignment. As far as he knew, the only assassins or double agents there would be portrayals of fictional characters. He would just be keeping an eye on a couple of Russian oligarchs who had a passion for investing their ill-gotten gains in theatrical pursuits. Nonetheless, he'd jumped at the gig. Martha was listed as a participant in the festivities, and Richard and Kate were on the roster as special guests. Many of the attendees would be wearing elaborate masks or heavy makeup. He'd have no trouble spending some time around his family, incognito. His Phantom of the Opera costume would be more than a sufficient disguise.

* * *

"Your father and I really appreciate you watching your sister tonight. There's breast milk in the fridge," Kate told Alexis for the second time. "You shouldn't have to feed Jo more than once before we get home, but there's extra in case you do."

"Kate, relax," Alexis urged. "It's not as if I've never sat for Jo before. I know where everything is and I know what she likes. We Castle girls understand each other. We'll have a good time together."

"Don't have too good a time," Castle instructed, adjusting the iconic Steed hat on his thick head of hair, as he entered the room. "She's like you were. When she gets too hyper, she doesn't sleep. Believe me, around the twenty-fifth time you've heard the music from the mobile over her crib; it gets really old."

"Good but not too good, got it, Dad."

"You are looking very dapper, Steed," Kate said as Castle slipped on his overcoat.

"And you look absolutely smashing, Mrs. Peel." Castle offered his arm. "Shall we?"

"We shall."

* * *

Photographers lined the red carpet of the Balfour Hotel, which was hosting the gala in their Grand Ballroom. The actors involved in vignettes and tableaus, including Martha, were among the first to arrive. Martha swept down the line of clicking cameras and shouted requests to pose, as the grand dame of the theater she was. Reporters did stand-ups, describing the parade of celebrities, while video of interviews with the "A-listers" streamed on a YouTube channel created for the occasion. Rick and Kate arrived in the second VIP wave after the stars were inside. They'd come by limo, not so much for the status, but to avoid the nightmare of parking. A cab would take them back to the loft at the end of the evening's festivities when the furor had died down. Kate could have done without the host of cameras that were still present, but she glued a smile to her lips and did her best to keep from tugging at her costume. Castle wore the expression Kate had so often seen at book parties and signings - open and friendly but not an invitation to additional contact. Rick had registered ahead of time as a bidder. With his payment information already on record, he wouldn't have to worry about writing checks or offering his credit card. He fully intended to at the least, obtain a picture of Martha in the spy assemblage, to either put under the tree for Christmas or to use as a future tease, depending on how it turned out.

Jack Nolan, as neither a star nor a member of the millionaires' club, was in the last group of attendees admitted to the glittering affair. He would have preferred an identity as a major contributor, to ease mixing with the targets of his surveillance for the evening, but the agency had developed a sudden penchant for counting its pennies, so the price of a ticket was all they were willing to put out for the assignment. Even that was not cheap; the fee covered an open and well-stocked bar. His ducat was enough to get him in the door, which was what counted. He'd observed his family entering earlier. With any luck, he might even get a dance with Martha. It had been about forty years since his last one, but it still occasionally played in his head, as a distraction when he was crouching somewhere in the shadows. A new memory would not be unwelcome.

* * *

Castle nudged Beckett, as they toured a display of theatrically themed contributions, destined to go under the auctioneer's hammer. "Do you see that guy in the Phantom costume - tall, white hair, dark brows?" he whispered.

"What about him?" Kate asked.

"You were practically unconscious the last time you were around him, but Kate, from his height and the way he moves, I would swear that's the guy who helped me rescue you. I think that's Jack Nolan, my father."

"Castle, assuming you're right, what would he be doing here?"

"I have no idea except…. Look! He's walking toward Mother. Hey! He's asking her to dance. They're heading for the floor. And from the expression on her face, she wasn't just being polite accepting his invitation."

"I wonder if she knows?"

"I have no idea, but from the way she's snuggling into his shoulder, she's feeling something. I think what we have there is a pretend spy quite possibly meeting up with a real one."

"That's sweet Castle, but how about these two pretend spies joining them out there."

Castle extended his hand. "Mrs. Peel, it would be my great pleasure to cut a rug with you."

Jack's eyes flicked to the couple joining the group on the dance floor. Covert as his method was, he had managed to engineer a family reunion.


	77. Chapter 77

Emergence

Chapter 77

The jet stream had shifted downward, letting the arctic air sweep in to do its worst to freeze the city in place. The occupants of the Castle loft could not have cared less. Their stores of holiday provisions and treats were complete. Presents were piled high beneath the glowing tree, and everyone except Jo had their secret stashes for stocking stuffing.

"Mother," Castle repeated as he retrieved a bag of marshmallows from a kitchen cabinet, do you want cocoa?"

"What? Oh no, thank you, Richard."

"Mother, are you all right? You've seemed distracted ever since the gala."

"Have I? Well, I suppose I have. Did you see the man I was dancing with; the one in the Phantom mask?"

"It would have been hard to miss him. Aside from a couple of players for the Knicks, he towered above the crowd."

"Richard, you know how we actors are about sensory memory."

"I have heard you give forth on the subject on multiple occasions, Mother. What exactly was it that you sensed in the murderous ghost?"

"He felt, he even smelled the way I remember your father. And from what I could see of his facial structure, looked like the man he might have become." Martha stared at her son. "You're not surprised."

"No, I'm not," Castle admitted. "I recognized him from when he helped me rescue Kate. I think he's been keeping watch on us from afar, Mother. Given the Nolan family history, I have some suspicions about his reasons. But obviously, he wanted to take his chance at the gala to get close to you without revealing himself."

"Good heavens, Richard! As an actor, I deal with feelings, how to use them, how to communicate them to an audience. But I don't have a clue about what to do with what I'm feeling now."

Rick reached for her hand. "Give it time, Mother. If there is anyone who can make the best of the ghosts of past and present, it's you. In the meantime, there is little more therapeutic than chocolate. Have some cocoa with the rest of us. In honor of Christmas Eve, you could even consider violating your diet with a cookie or two."

Martha brought her palm down on the counter with a smack. "Son, you're on!"

* * *

Castle appreciatively sampled the glug that Martha had pulled herself together enough to make. It was perfect. In fact, dinner was perfect, if he did say so himself. Alexis had worked on desserts, and Kate had put together the side dishes, except for the corn casserole her father had contributed, but the turkey was all Rick's, fragrant with herbs and perfectly browned.

Except for a little rice cereal her pediatrician permitted Jo to eat to fill in the hunger gaps, Kate was still the source of Jo's nutrition. Nonetheless, the baby's portable crib had been placed as close to the table as possible, to include her in the dining festivities. After scooping the stuffing onto a serving platter, Castle stroked his knife against the traditional steel and began to carve. He had a moment of longing for a father that would have taught him the proper technique. As it was, he'd spent hours with cookbooks and YouTube, trying to reach perfection. When the legs separated perfectly from the body of the bird, and even slices fell from the fowl's generous breast, he knew that he'd spent his time profitably.

"Well done, Rick," Jim Beckett said. "I always wished I could do that, but I was so ham-handed that Johanna always insisted on taking over."

"But you were the one who could make the gravy that didn't have lumps in it, Dad," Kate recalled.

"We do all have our special skills," Martha pointed out.

"Which makes having the family all together, so much sweeter," Castle added.

"Goodness Richard, serve the turkey before you get maudlin," Martha commanded.

"Yes, Mother," Rick obeyed, as Kate covered her mouth to hide a smile."

* * *

Jack had been colder. A mountain cave in Afghanistan came to mind. So, did a wintry stretch in North Korea. But the chill that ran through his body this Christmas was not due solely to the temperature. He'd been warm, truly warm, with Martha in his arms and Richard and Kate danced nearby in the festive ballroom. When the moment ended, it had left an emptiness he couldn't remember experiencing before. No amount of work, no matter how noble the cause, would be able to fill the rift that was forming in his soul. It was strange, there had been so many years, decades really, when he was sure he had no soul. He went where he was sent and did what he was ordered. Often the completion of his missions was swift and deadly. He had always consoled himself that if the cause was just, it was worth pursuing whatever job he was given, no matter where, no matter how bloody. Now he wasn't sure. The Nolans who had come before him had returned from their service. They'd raised their families. They'd passed the torch. Richard didn't even know there was a torch to be passed. He'd grown up knowing only of a father who had been the briefest of interludes in Martha's life. It hadn't seemed to have slowed him down any, but if Richard had managed to weather the loss, Jack wasn't sure that he'd done the same. He was passing the age where many men retire, take the time to enjoy their grandchildren, go where they'd always wanted to go and do what they'd always wanted to do. Officially, the CIA had a retirement age. Unofficially, for someone like Jack, his only real exit was the grim reaper. He'd always known that and had made peace with it. Now that peace was broken. The brief time spent in tenuous contact with his family had been like a hit of some wildly addictive drug. Once he'd sampled it, he could think of little else but getting more. But Jack had no idea how he could do that without endangering the very ones he treasured. A way would come to him. It had to.

* * *

Kate curled into the curve of Rick's arm under a cozy down alternative comforter. "What time do we get up to fill the stockings?"

"I used to do it at midnight, but Alexis almost caught me a couple of times. It wasn't that she really believed in Santa. I think she'd given up on that by the time she was six and stopped buying the Santa's helpers story about all the jolly clones sitting on thrones in department stores and ringing Salvation Army bells. We just both wanted to maintain the fun of the fiction. We still do, and I want Jo to enjoy it too, as long as possible. Two or three A.M. still works pretty well. If we have everything ready, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to distribute the trinkets. Then we can go back to sleep, or perhaps find a more pleasurable pursuit."

Kate turned to him, trailing her fingertips down his thigh. "Just what type of pleasurable pursuit did you have in mind?"

Rick pulled her tightly against the heat flooding into his groin. Perhaps we can start now and schedule a reprise later."

Kate pulled at the snaps on his Christmas pajamas. "I'm all for reprises."

"Merry Christmas," Castle whispered, as visions sweeter than sugarplums danced in their bed.


	78. Chapter 78

Emergence

Chapter 78

Supervising Agent Baker accepted the report with a sense of inevitability. The old man had conducted his last mission, and it had been successful. He'd blown up an ISIS munitions dump in Niger, taking a nest of ISIS fighters with it. Unfortunately, Jack had died with them. DNA found at the explosion site confirmed it. Jack Nolan had lasted a lot longer than most operatives who were assigned his kind of work, but his luck had finally run out. Jack's preferred alias of Jackson Hunt, had never officially existed, but any mention of him, or any of the other identities Jack Nolan had assumed over the years had been deleted from the records. History would not remember him, but a small group of dedicated men and women would, and hope that they could serve their country as well.

* * *

Jack gazed in the mirror of his motel room. Over the years he'd stowed away cash and established identities the company hadn't known about. He was making use of one of them now. He knew that he'd been purged from any database that might yield facial recognition, but he'd modified his appearance enough to fit the expertly forged identification he carried. He'd darkened his hair, allowing only for distinguished streaks of silver at the temples. He'd lightened his brows and grown a full beard. It would never fool anyone skilled in tradecraft, but then no one like that would be looking for him anymore. The intelligence community believed he was ash, which meant that he was finally free.

Jack's first order of business would be finding someplace more permanent than a motel room to live. He'd kept abreast of what was available near the Castle family. Property values in the area had risen beyond reasonable bounds, but there was one apartment in an adjoining building that was a white elephant. It had been occupied by a family who had been slaughtered by the father when he'd become violently irrational from an undetected brain tumor. Had it not been for the autopsy after the killer died, the reason for the massacre would have gone unknown. The small condo had passed through several owners, who had sold it in the wake of nightmares filled with blood-spattered walls and dead bodies. Such visions were mild compared to what Jack had seen and even perpetrated over the years, although to his knowledge he had never killed an innocent. No nightmares could be worse than the ones that still haunted his nights. He had more than enough funds to meet the asking price, which had dropped every month the property went unoccupied. He had only to wait until the paperwork could grind its way through title searches and whatever else real estate transactions required. For a cash sale, he expected the process would take a month or less.

More difficult was conceiving how he could work his way into his family's lives. He couldn't just knock on Richard's door and announce himself as his son's long-lost father. Or maybe he could. Kate's rescue had been more than sufficient introduction. After decades of complicated plans and twisted scenarios, it was hard to accept that something could be that straightforward. But he was out of the cold now; his interactions with the rest of the human race might need to change more than his appearance. He'd just have to pick the right time. It could happen very soon. The book section of the Ledger had noted that Richard Castle was on a book tour for his latest Nikki Heat book. Jack had read the novel while his butt was suspended in a cargo net on an overseas flight aboard a military transport. The story had been engrossing and sexy. Richard had even gotten the gun stances correct. Jack suspected he'd had some help from Kate on that. The adventure had climbed up the best-seller list, and Richard was scheduled to return to New York in a couple of days. Jack would give him time to get settled and enjoy some intimate time with his beautiful wife before he made his approach. What would come after that, he had no idea.

* * *

Castle used to be fond of airports. He'd even used delays for people watching, integrating the more interesting characters he'd observed, into his stories. There were no fewer colorful denizens of the concourses now, but Rick was more interested in making it home than making notes. His flight had been delayed three times. There was no problem where he was, but the hub in Chicago had lost power due to a tornado spawned by a severe thunderstorm. Castle's plane was stuck there, and the airline had nothing to replace it. Rick was seriously considering renting a car and driving back to New York, but it would be a twelve-hour trip under normal circumstances, and with several storm systems between him and his destination, it would most likely be faster just to wait for his flight.

* * *

Chasing down criminals had never prepared Kate to chase down a toddler. Precocious Jo had begun walking at nine months and after a few early wobbles and tumbles had become unstoppable. She had also inherited Castle's curiosity. Though cabinets had been safety latched, outlets covered, and breakables put out of reach, she still seemed to find an endless number of things to get into, especially when she made it into Castle's office. Kate suspected that Jo made a beeline for Rick's domain at every chance she got because she missed her father. Kate did too. Rick was contractually obligated to promote his books. It was a necessary evil of his profession. Still, the bed was uncomfortably cold and the coffee lacking in flavor when he was gone. He'd texted several times about delays in his flights, and she'd checked on the situation on the news when Jo had exhausted herself enough to be still for a few minutes. The latest report Kate had seen said the power had been restored in the bottleneck airport, but it would still take a lot of time to arrange to transport the backlog of anxious passengers. Rick had promised to let her know as soon as he was on his way. Jo was beginning to slow down. With any luck, when her daughter finally succumbed to slumber, Kate would be able to catch some rest as well. When the opportunity finally came to close her eyes, she never heard the ding indicating Rick's text on her phone.

* * *

Kate could sense the familiar presence before she could force her eyes to open. "Hey," Rick murmured as his wife's thick eyelashes lifted. Kate checked her father's watch, which had remained on her wrist when she'd lain down on top of the comforter and pulled an afghan her Aunt Theresa had crocheted, over her. "I've only been asleep for a couple of hours. How did you get here?"

"I chartered a plane," Castle explained, "and brought as many people as I could, with me. I would have been stuck in an airport or a hotel room for another eight hours at least, and I couldn't wait that long to see you and Jo. I just peeked in on her, by the way. She's awake, but playing with that new crib toy we got her for Christmas, the one with the spinning disk that's almost hypnotic. She didn't even know I was there, or I would never have made it in here to you. I'll go pick her up in a minute, but I wanted to properly greet my wife first."

Kate rounded her lips with the tip of her tongue and lifted her arms toward her husband. "Then Buster, you'd better get to it."

A/N Dear Guest, been there, done that, myself, with the frequent nursing and constant sleep deprivation until I was practically in tears asking my son's pediatrician if I could put a little rice cereal on the menu. I know how it goes.


	79. Chapter 79

Emergence

Chapter 79

"What is causing the grooves in your normally velvet brow?" Castle asked.

"Just having trouble finding a decent place for another woman and her children who are being terrorized by her ex-boyfriend. He's one of those guys who came on charming until he wormed his way in, then the turned out to be a violent, controlling asshole. She's tried to get a restraining order, but he's got one of those scumbag lawyers. So, she's stuck. Mira's working on it. So's the protective network. We put them up in a motel with Shigeta money, but she and the kids really need somewhere they can feel secure. There have been more families in the same situation, lately. We need a new solution."

"Couldn't that money build a safehouse or something?" Castle asked.

"The trouble is, a project like that would be too public. Anyone with internet access could figure out where it was going to be, even before it was constructed. We need something more under the radar."

Castle scowled. "There's got to be…" A rap on the door interrupted his train of thought. He eyed the man standing on the threshold. The hair was different, and the beard was new, but the eyes, combined with the height, were unmistakable. Wordlessly, Rick stepped aside and motioned the man inside."

"You should at least ask who someone is before letting them in your door, son," Jack said.

"I know who you are," Castle retorted. "You are the man who helped me rescue my wife and daughter. And you were accurate when you called me son. You're my father, Jack Nolan."

Jack's jaw dropped. "How did you…?"

"Aside from the fact that my mother knew it was you when you danced with her, that is a long and convoluted story. Come and sit down with Kate and me and we can explain it."

Jack nodded, fingering his beard. "That, I'd like to hear."

* * *

"So," Jack recapitulated, "you traced me from a painting in a book that Kate used, to have the dress she wanted, made for her wedding?"

"There was a lot more to it, but that's essentially correct," Castle agreed.

"It was a beautiful dress," Jack recalled. Rick and Kate sent him simultaneous questioning looks. "I was there. I was watching from the woods," he admitted. "I just couldn't reveal my presence. It was too dangerous to let anyone know about my relationship to Richard."

"And yet you came marching through our front door," Castle noted. "'Too dangerous' in the past tense? What's changed?"

"What's changed is that I'm deceased," Jack announced. "What you see before you is a ghost."

"You look pretty solid to me," Castle declared. "Ooh, or is this one of those, you can come back for one day to right all your wrongs deals?"

Jack laughed as Kate rolled her eyes. "No, nothing supernatural about me. I haven't expired - at least not yet. But both the good guys and bad guys think I have. Actually, I got the idea from you; the whole Derrick Storm faked his own death thing. Except that the way I did it was less unlikely and more convincing."

"Thanks a lot," Castle responded. "I can see how you and Mother got along. So other than Dad, what am I supposed to call my reincarnated father?"

"Tim Dillard," the newly minted Tim answered. "The original died less than a day after he was born. Lived just long enough for his parents to name him and for a birth certificate to be filed."

"I had a teacher named Mr. Dillard," Castle remembered. "Good guy. Taught me how to use the Oxford comma."

"A younger brother." Castle raised a quizzical eyebrow. "I have looked in on you as much as possible over the years, Richard."

Following a quick clatter in the hall, the door flew open, and Martha rushed in. "Darlings, I just booked the most divine role on Temptation Lane and … oh, my God! It's you!"

Tim nodded, getting to his feet. "Hello, Martha."

"That's it?" she demanded. "Hello? No 'I'm sorry I left you to raise our son alone all these years?' You have no idea just how much trouble a boy can get into when he doesn't have a decent father figure."

"I think I do, Martha, but you did a good job. He seems to have turned out all right. And I am sorry. But I am here now."

"So, you are, with no mask this time. What do you want? Obviously more than a dance."

A buzzer sounded from the kitchen. Castle rose and started toward the kitchen. "That's the mac and cheese bake I put in the oven. If I'd known this was coming, Kate and I could have put together something more extravagant, but Jo loves the gooey goodness, and she'll be up from her nap any second. Alexis will be here soon too. She said she wants to borrow some books from my library. I suggest that as soon as she arrives, we all sit down with my homemade comfort food. We can talk all this through as a family."

"I suppose that makes sense," Martha conceded.

* * *

Tim dabbed at his mouth with a napkin to make sure no cheese migrated to his beard. The conversation had mercifully shifted to Kate's work as a woman's advocate. "I admire what you're doing, and I have an idea for you about safe places for women and children hiding from abusers."

Kate regarded her newly unveiled father-in-law. "You do?"

"I do have some experience in staying out of sight," Tim reminded her. "I know about safe houses. My former employer maintains many of them and has for the life of its existence. They're purposefully nondescript but solid, with thick walls and built-in connections for security systems. They're set up to operate off the grid if necessary too, so they can't be breached by cutting the power. But the company doesn't keep them long - too much chance of discovery. After a few years, sometimes less, they go on the listings of generic government surplus. They usually get picked up way below market value at auction. You could put together a shell corporation without much trouble and purchase a few. They wouldn't be fancy, but anyone who stayed in one would be secure."

"That could work," Kate mused.

"I think my lawyer and accountant could handle that, or recommend someone who could," Castle added. He grinned at his father. "Look at us! A family building theory together, I think you're going to fit in, Dad."

"But's it's not I like a can call you Grandpa," Alexis put in. "Mr. Dillard? Or maybe Cousin Tim, like a distant relative. You do look a little like Dad."

"I suppose Cousin Tim would work," Tim responded. "A relative who's come back to the country after working overseas for years. The identity I created will support that."

"Ooh, we could say we found you with one of those DNA tests," Castle suggested. "That would account for why no one's ever heard of you before. How did you get your DNA at the site of the explosion where you died, anyway? I might be able to use that detail in a book sometime."

"I doubt it," Tim replied. "It's not that interesting. I snuck in after the fires were out and spread some of my blood and skin around the margins of the explosion, to look like bits of me that hadn't burned up. That fertile mind of yours can probably come up with something more creative than that."

Castle absently started picking up the debris around Jo's high chair. "Mm, I'd have to think about that, maybe…."

"While we're discussing phony identities, just what am I supposed to call you?" Martha demanded.

Tim reached for her hand. "Home, Martha. You can call me home."


	80. Chapter 80

Emergence

Chapter 80

"Are you okay, Kate? You have that pale, about to upchuck look, like you did on Jo's first day at preschool, even if you did make fun of me hiding in the bushes to keep an eye on her."

"I kind of expected that part, Babe," Kate confessed. "I remembered when you told Roy Montgomery you'd done that on Alexis' first day. But this is different. It's my first significant exam since I started law school. I'm a little nervous."

"Yeah, I get it," Castle said. "I was like that whenever I had the first test in a new school - which was a lot. You don't know what the rules are or what to expect from the teacher. You don't even know if there's a curve or not."

"That I do know. The professor told us there'd be no mercy on the bar exam, so he isn't going to show any either. If nobody knows their stuff, everyone goes down."

"That's brutal, but I suppose it's reasonable. Whenever I've been in court, the lawyers were pretty quick on their feet."

"Yeah, me too."

"So how can I make this better?" Castle inquired. "Super vanilla latte with the special Castle touch? Neck rub? Both?"

"No more coffee. The last thing I want is having to pee right in the middle of the exam. But I'll take the neck rub, especially if you throw in the shoulders."

"My nimble fingers are at your disposal."

* * *

Martha could feel the warmth on her back as she woke up, spooning with Tim. It had been a long time coming, and she still wasn't used to it. Despite understanding that Tim had spent a lot of years working to keep her and every other American safe, it had taken a lot of meditation and more than a few sessions with a therapist to get past her anger at being abandoned. There were other things to get used to as well. With her husbands, even the one who took off with her savings, she had been the dominant member of the relationship. She'd received almost no push backs from her other halves. It was possible that had been the problem. She needed a partner, not a sycophant. Like Richard, Tim could be charming, sometimes almost too much so, but he didn't fawn, and he didn't knuckle under. When he disagreed, he said so and gave her a cogent argument. As often as not, he was right. She found that by turns maddening and comforting. It was definitely steadying. It had been months since she'd moved in with him. She'd been hesitant but known she had a convenient escape hatch, with Richard's loft only one building over.

So far, she had no wish to return to the loft, except for family get-togethers and to watch Jo grow up. Because she was rarely on the road anymore, she'd seen more of Jo in her nascent years than she had a young Alexis. Martha had enjoyed every moment, especially after Jo was potty trained. Even if Jo weren't her granddaughter, she'd think the girl was pretty amazing. Not only had she walked early, like her father she had talked early as well, and also like her father, rarely stopped. Her parents started taking her on weekly trips to the library not long after she'd turned two, taking turns reading the stories to her. About the time she turned three, she'd started reading them on her own, and begun to spin her own colorful tales. No doubt she had her father's imagination, but she also had her mother's fierceness and almost an obsessive sense of purpose. When Jo decided on something, whether it was setting up a route for her toy train or curing the imagined maladies of her stuffed animals, there was no stopping her. Martha imagined that as a teen, Jo would be a force to be reckoned with. She hoped she'd be around to see Richard and Kate fight that battle. She hoped Tim would be too. She could tell that he loved both his granddaughters, but had a chance to bond with Jo that he'd never had with Alexis.

Tim didn't or couldn't tell Martha much about what his life had been like, but the evidence was on his body. Over her years doing movies and television she'd seen many skilled make-up artists create battle scars, but Tim's were real, and there were a lot of them. In the few times, she'd asked, he'd told her if the puckered flesh had been caused by a bullet, a knife, or shrapnel, but nothing more than that. She'd just come to accept the marks as part of him, a sign of his determination to survive and eventually return home to her and the rest of the family.

* * *

Kate checked her watch for the third time. She had another 15 minutes. That was about right. The exam was an hour long, and she was about three-quarters of the way through. She'd remembered being faster when she was in college, usually finishing ahead of the other students. But most of her classmates now were younger than she was, with less to sort through in their brains. That was a double-edged sword. She was able to call on years of experience in enforcing the law, if not litigating it. At least she knew a lot of the basics. But some of the niggling details tended to escape her, and she suspected she'd had to work harder to memorize them than many of the other students had. She didn't type as fast as a lot of the others, either. That was fine. She was fine. She knew where she was going and why. That gave her the impetus to make it through her classes, regardless of whatever stumbling blocks her age might present.

* * *

Burke Harcourt was finally getting out of prison. It had been a long time coming. Unlike most of the other inmates, there had not been a day shaved off his sentence, in fact, there had been some added when he had been blamed for a fight in the yard in which he had been unwillingly swept up. After that, he stayed as much to himself as he could, lowering his eyes and averting his gaze whenever he was anywhere near a prisoner higher in the pecking order than he was. Unfortunately, that was a lot of them. Violation of a restraining order didn't earn much respect. Burke had a plan. The first thing he'd do when he got out would be to reconstitute whatever was left of his finances. The court had attached everything they knew about, for Billy's support, but he'd managed to stow some cash in drops where no questions were asked, as long as you paid up front. He'd need a place to live, and sooner or later a job. Finding one would not be easy, He'd heard about that from other inmates who'd tried unsuccessfully to make it on the outside. Most employers were unwilling to hire anyone with a felony conviction. But Burke had skills. He'd also kept his ears open and gathered dirt to use as leverage. Once he'd wangled a job, he would find Callie and Billy. Every moment he'd waited for his release, he'd thought about what he would do to his ex-wife. Soon, whatever it took, the bitch would get what was coming to her.


	81. Chapter 81

Emergence

Chapter 81

Castle raised a goblet of orange juice, over breakfast at the counter in the kitchen. "Here's to Kate Beckett, the ace of the law school race."

Kate rolled her eyes. "It was only one exam Babe. I have a long way to go."

"I have faith that you will continue to shine. And we have my special muffins to celebrate; banana with butterscotch and cinnamon chips. I had to wangle the butterscotch morsels from Jo's guardianship."

"But they're candy, Daddy," the little girl protested. "We're not supposed to have candy for breakfast."

"She does have a point," Kate acknowledged.

"And I have a counterpoint," Castle insisted, "marshmallows are candy, and we put them in our cocoa. And then there are Lucky Charms, although I don't know if I'd class them as either lucky or charming. Anyway, just try the muffins."

Kate savored a bite, closing her eyes. "In this case, I can go for candy for breakfast."

"I want cereal. Cheerios," Jo declared.

I'll get you some, Sweetheart," Kate offered, rising from her stool. She'd just poured milk on the tiny oat rings when her cell phone dinged.

"What's wrong?" Castle asked, watching the color dissapear from her face as she read a text. Kate wordlessly handed him the phone and Rick's eyes quickly scanned the screen. He inclined his head slightly toward Jo, who was enthusiastically digging her spoon into her breakfast, then shifted his gaze back to his wife as he handed back her phone. "We can talk about this later," he murmured softly.

* * *

Castle closed the door firmly behind him when he returned from walking Jo to school. "So, Harcourt is out. Do you think he'll be going after Callie and Billie?"

"I'm sure of it," Kate said. "I can't forget the look in his eyes when the bailiff led him off after the judge pronounced sentence. He could have been someone out of a horror movie. He looked demonic. I need to get Callie and Billy to one of the safe houses. I'm pretty sure the one in Brooklyn has an opening. It's not far from where she lives, and we can get her and Billy safe escort to work and school."

"Then what?" Castle wondered.

Kate shrugged. "I don't know, Babe. Under the law, the man has served his time. He's as entitled as anyone to go about his life. But if he shows a sign of making any kind of a threatening move, we'll be on top of him."

"How will you know?" Castle asked. "Can you have someone tail him?"

"We do a lot of things, Babe, but that's not one of them. We'd be hit with harassment suits that could cripple us."

"Your organization may not be able to do it, Kate," Castle responded, pulling his cell out of his pocket, "but there is nothing to stop me. And if he wants to sue me, we'll see who has the deeper pockets and better lawyers."

* * *

Tim regarded the chessboard as Rick castled. "Defensive move, Richard. Not your usual game."

"I feel like I'm playing defense, Dad." Castle proceeded to explain how he'd hired a detective agency to watch Burke Harcourt.

"That's noble son, but you can't protect the whole world. I learned that the hard way."

"I'll protect whatever part of it I can, just like you did. But obviously, it's not a permanent solution."

"It doesn't have to be," Tim pointed out. "If Harcourt tries to do what Kate thinks he will, and I have no reason to doubt her assumption, he'll get caught in the act and sent back to Sing Sing. Or at the very least, the court will make him wear one of your whiz-bangs."

"Whiz-bangs, Dad? Is that spy terminology?"

"The term, son," Tim answered, capturing one of Castle's pawns, "is intelligence nomenclature. And no, purely descriptive. But if you want me to, I can keep an eye on the situation. I still have a few skills."

"Of that, I have no doubt, Dad. And thanks."

* * *

"Ms. Beckett, are you with us?" Professor Frost inquired. Kate looked up from her laptop, where she'd been checking for further news about Burke Harcourt. "Yes, sir. I understand that you want volunteers for a moot court. I would be happy to participate."

"That's good Ms. Beckett because I intend to cast you as a police officer testifying about evidence found at the crime scene. Not much of a stretch for you, I would imagine."

"No sir," Kate agreed. "No stretch at all."

* * *

Burke Harcourt looked around what had been advertised as a studio apartment but wasn't much bigger than a closet. It was better than a cell, but that was the most he could say for it. He would do better when he'd been working for a while. Once he'd pointed out to his old boss where a few contractor's dollars had been "misplaced," the man had grudgingly found a slot for him. Burke had everything he needed to begin his search for Callie. He even had an idea where to start. Callie had grown up with Bessie Sturgeon. They had been inseparable until Bessie's husband had been transferred to Texas, and Bessie had gone with him. Completely by happenstance, Burke had watched a newscast about flooding from the last hurricane. Burke didn't give a damn about the victims, but the reporter had a great rack on her, so he had kept watching. The buxom blonde had interviewed Bessie, who was moaning about the loss of her house. Bessie had also told her interviewer that she and her husband would be returning to New York to stay with relatives until they could get settled in a new home. There was no way Bessie and Callie would stay away from each other. If he kept an eye on Bessie, she'd make contact with Callie sooner or later. He'd just have to wait. He hoped he wouldn't have to wait too long.

Tim easily spotted the detective that Richard had hired. The man wasn't a bad choice. He was of average height, with slightly thinning brown hair and brown eyes. He would not draw anyone's gaze, which made him perfect for his job. Physically, Tim was a lot more noticeable but considerably more skilled in the art of making a quick disappearance. The detective had not spotted him, and Harcourt certainly hadn't. Harcourt had yet to get near Callie's safehouse. It was obvious that he had no idea where it was. He hadn't even looked in the right borough. Tim picked up on something the detective did not appear to be giving his attention. Harcourt was shadowing another woman. Tim had no idea why, but he knew who the woman was. She'd given her name when she picked up her dry cleaning, and he'd been listening in. He could pass the information on to Richard and Kate. If Kate didn't know what connection, if any, Bessie Sturgeon might be to Callie, she could find out. If Bessie and Callie did make contact, it might just be possible to spring a trap on Harcourt. There were worse and more effective things that could happen to Harcourt than restraining orders or being sent back to jail. Tim was not at all sure he'd use any of them, but it never hurt to be prepared. He would need supplies, and he knew where to find them.


	82. Chapter 82

Emergence

Chapter 82

"Detective Beckett," Keith Pritchard, the fellow student portraying the defense attorney inquired, "when you examined the crime scene, were you wearing gloves?"

Kate suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. "Of course, I was, Mr. Pritchard. That is standard police procedure."

"What kind of gloves, Detective Beckett? Nitrile? Latex?"

"Leather," Kate responded, annoyance edging her voice. "At the time I arrived, it was 25 degrees outside and icy. I already had them on."

Keith nodded. "I see. Did you put the gloves on before you left the 12th Precinct?"

"Yes."

"And while you had these gloves on, before you arrived at the crime scene, what did you touch?"

Kate pushed her hair behind her ear. "What do you mean, Mr. Pritchard?"

"For example, did you touch the elevator buttons as you were leaving the precinct? Did you touch the handle of your car? Did you touch the steering wheel? Did you touch your hair in the charming gesture you just demonstrated to the court?"

"I suppose I might have done all of those things," Mr. Pritchard."

Acting the part of the prosecuting attorney, student Bob Loffgren rose from his seat. "Your honor, I object. Relevance?"

"Your honor, I am attempting to establish how the investigation itself might have contaminated the crime scene," Keith explained.

"Very well," Mr. Pritchard, student Cassie Underhill, as judge, responded. "You may continue this line of questioning."

Keith nodded. "Now, Detective Beckett, the staircase leading up to the crime scene has a banister. Were you grasping it with a gloved hand as you climbed the stairs?"

"I may have been."

"And were you wearing those gloves when you handled the murder weapon?"

Kate gripped the arms of the witness chair. "Yes."

"Very well, let's move on to your footwear. What kind of shoes were you wearing?"

"I was wearing boots, Mr. Pritchard. As I explained, it was cold and icy outside."

"And did these boots have rubber treads to keep you from slipping on the ice?"

"Yes, they did."

"And have you ever observed dirt or debris in the treads of those boots?

"Mr. Pritchard, it would be difficult to avoid having dirt on my boots."

"I agree, Detective Beckett. Given that, did you cover your boots with protective booties at the crime scene."

"No, Mr. Pritchard, I did not."

"May I ask why?" Keith queried.

"Those booties are not part of standard N.Y.P.D. procedure," Kate responded.

"Then let's review, Detective Beckett," Keith pressed, "You arrived in boots with unknown contaminants from which you made no effort to protect the crime scene. You were wearing gloves that may have come in contact with multiple sources of DNA, including your own. Those gloves may have touched the railing in the building where the crime occurred. Is that correct, Detective?"

"Yes," Kate confirmed.

"Your honor, I call the court's attention to the defense's stipulation, accepted by the people, that the defendant had previously been inside that building. "Now, I ask you, detective, in addition to whatever other confounding evidence you may have introduced to the crime scene, it is possible that the defendant's DNA was on the railing beside the staircase? And further, is it possible that DNA was transferred to the leather gloves you were wearing and further transferred to the crime scene and even the murder weapon?"

"Yes, Mr. Pritchard," Kate conceded, "I suppose that is possible."

* * *

Kate popped five M&M's in her mouth, from a bowl she'd brought to the coffee table near the couch she'd sunk into beside Rick. "Castle, that kid, Keith Pritchard, destroyed me. If it had been an actual trial, he would have gotten an acquittal - and deserved one."

"Kate, it was only a moot court," Castle pointed out. "There was no real case, no real crime."

"But Castle, I worked on a lot of real cases, real crimes. We both did. Pritchard made me see that the procedures I followed, weren't good enough. Babe, we've both seen more stringent protocols in British mystery novels. Thank God that New York no longer puts anyone to death, but I have to wonder if I put anyone behind bars who doesn't belong there. Hell, you stopped me from doing that, on our very first case together, because you spotted clues I didn't see. And that was hardly the last time."

Rick reached for her hand. "Kate, you're letting yourself get shook. I will admit that procedures the N.Y.P.D. was following were less than perfect. And not just members of the N.Y.P.D. I can remember going into crime scenes without gloves. Espo came down on me for it, more than once. But you never took a case to the D.A. unless it was solid. More often than not, you got a confession. Roy Montgomery said you were better in the box than anyone he'd seen. And even when you didn't get one, there had to be a trail of evidence, not just some trace DNA. I don't think you sent anyone to jail who didn't belong there. But if you'd like to review your cases, especially the ones I had anything to do with, you know I took copious notes. Even when I didn't do it at the scene, I always put them down when I got home. If you want to go over anything, my files are your files."

Kate caressed his cheek and leaned in for a kiss. "Thanks, Babe, I may take you up on that."

"And time shifting to present day, what did Callie tell you about the mystery woman, Bessie Sturgeon?" Castle asked.

"When I asked her about Bessie, she lit up like a Christmas tree. She and Bessie met in kindergarten. They went through all the girl things together, first crushes, doing each other's hair, even a stuff it up party to learn to use tampons."

"Ew. I really didn't need to know that last part. Thankfully, Meredith was in town to cope with that for Alexis."

"Anyway," Kate continued, "Bessie got married and moved to Texas before Callie met Burke Harcourt, but Callie had told him about Bessie when she showed him her high school yearbook. Callie had a couple of pictures of herself with Bessie around her apartment too. Burke would have known Bessie on sight. She and Callie still talked and emailed. Even before Callie married Harcourt, Bessie was skeptical of the guy, but she never met him. That's probably why she hasn't noticed him watching her. He'd be just another one of millions of New Yorkers to her. Callie would really like to see Bessie. She's also very nervous about the possibility of Harcourt doing something to Bessie, even though she knows you're having him watched. Of course, she has no idea about your father."

"And neither does Harcourt," Castle pointed out. "With my private detective, my father, and you, looking out for Callie and Bessie, maybe a meeting between the two of them is just what we need to get Harcourt to make a mistake that will put him away for good."

Kate shook her head. "Castle, even if Callie would be willing, I can't risk that. I had a squad of FBI agents watching me, and Blount's guys still grabbed me. As good as your father and your detective might be, something can always go wrong. Sooner or later, Harcourt will trip himself up somehow. We'll just have to wait it out."

"For how long?" Castle asked.

Kate shook her head and pressed her face into the comfort of his chest. "I just don't know."


	83. Chapter 83

Emergence

Chapter 83

Burke Harcourt was impatient. He was beyond impatient. He was bordering on frantic. He'd spent almost every moment when he wasn't working, keeping an eye on Bessie Sturgeon, and he had almost nothing to show for it. He'd heard a few snatches of conversation when Callie had phoned Bessie while she was drinking a mocha latte at a coffee house, but there had been no hint of Callie's location. They'd just talked about Callie staying safe. It was as if he was being taunted. He was done with that. If he couldn't find Callie, he would find a way to take Bessie, force her to find out where Callie was, and tell him. It would not be easy. By now he knew Bessie's habits by heart. If she wasn't in the security building where she lived with her husband, she was always in a very public place. Screw that! He would find a way.

* * *

Castle pressed a memory stick into Kate's palm. "Here's the file you wanted. I remember this case. It was tragic. As I recall, Cassidy Yates, the defendant, was convicted of killing her husband who had been an abusive philanderer. If I had been on the jury, I would have let her off on the basis that she freed society from a total asshole."

"Yeah Castle, I might have been tempted to do the same. But cops aren't judges or juries. They just gather the evidence and bring the suspects in. After that, it's up to the justice system, but in this case, I think justice might have miscarried even if the husband a been a nicer guy. After the moot trial, I started writing a paper on scientifically debunked evidence, and I remembered this case."

Castle nodded. "Hmm, right. Cassidy was convicted on the basis of a bite mark, and cases like that are being reviewed and reversed now. There was that guy Krone who was almost executed because of of the erroneous identification of a bite mark. DNA proved he didn't commit the crime."

"Uh huh," Kate agreed. "It's like all the convictions on the basis of hair evidence that have been revisited. In some of those, the hairs that were supposedly matched to suspects, weren't even human. Even fingerprints are coming under scrutiny now. Remember the guy who was charged with a terrorist bombing even though he'd never been near the country where the bombing took place? It turned out it was someone else with identical points of comparison."

"I remember it all too well. I ended up having to rewrite several chapters of a book after that one. So aside from integrating it into your paper, what are you going to do about Cassidy's case?" Castle wondered.

"Babe, I honestly don't know. But my heart is in defending women. And if Cassidy Yates was convicted of a murder she didn't commit; I'm going to do whatever I can, to see that she's set free."

Castle drew her into his arms. "That's the Kate Beckett I love. It goes without saying, anything I can do to help…."

Kate snuggled against him. "I know, Babe."

* * *

Bessie's usual route to the subway was blocked. The sidewalk had been torn up for some kind of installation for a building that was being refurbished, and she would be forced to take a route that went through an alley, to get around it. Burke Harcourt swallowed the excess moisture that had flooded his mouth. This was just the chance he had been waiting for. There would be no observers and no cameras. He could grab her, and find someplace out of sight to take her. It wouldn't be hard to pry where Callie was hiding, out of Bessie. Prison had been a masters' class on the infliction of pain. He surveilled the alley. Doors were leading to stores that were empty and awaiting new construction. It would be a piece of cake to break into one of them and wait. When Bessie walked by, he could snatch her before she or anyone else knew what was happening. Then he'd get down to business. Harcourt smirked. He was going to enjoy his time with Callie's friend. He was going to enjoy it, a lot.

Tim noticed the alley, and Harcourt's interest in it, immediately. Tim had pulled off snatch and grabs, and even quick terminations, in places much like it. He had a good idea of what Harcourt was planning. It was time for the tables to turn. By the time Bessie reached the alley, Harcourt would have problems of his own, serious problems.

* * *

Kate rubbed her eyes and put her feet up, a folder balanced across her lap. "Is that from my Cassidy Yates file?" Castle asked.

Kate raked her fingers through her hair. "Yeah, it is."

"Come to any conclusions?"

"A very disturbing conclusion," Kate confided. "A bite mark sealed the case. Cassidy had a soft alibi. She said she was at a movie when the murder took place, but she paid cash for her ticket, and no one remembered seeing her there, so that she couldn't prove where she was. Once we had the bite mark evidence, we stopped trying to check her alibi. The street cam footage was never scrubbed. We didn't check the GPS on her phone. If she'd had a high-powered lawyer, some of that might have been done, but she had a public defender. Lanie said the bite took place right before the murder, and an odonatologist identified the mark as belonging to Cassidy. That discredited her alibi."

"So, what can be done now?" Castle asked.

"The traffic camera footage would have been overwritten a long time ago, but Cassidy's phone should still be in evidence. We took it when we arrested her. That would be a place to start. If her phone was at the movie, that wouldn't be enough to exonerate her, but it would be a start, and we could consider other suspects. If that bite didn't come from Cassidy, it came from someone else."

"Meaning that her husband had another lover who might not have been so loving," Castle queried.

"Exactly what I was thinking," Kate agreed.

* * *

Harcourt used a bump key to open an alley door, employing another tidbit of information he'd obtained in prison. He grinned as he slipped inside. This was going to be fun. An arm around his neck cut off his air before he moved a step further, and he felt the stab of a needle in his neck.

The unremarkable looking Jeff Martin, who had dutifully dogged Burke Harcourt's steps ever since receiving a generous retainer from Richard Castle, observed Harcourt breaking into a door. As he was moving in, he saw a familiar woman enter the alley, but she passed by the door without incident and approached a nearby subway entrance. After she'd gone, Jeff cautiously opened the unlocked door himself. Harcourt was lying unconscious on the concrete floor. There was no blood, and the man had no obvious injuries. Jeff felt for a pulse on the man's neck. It was there, but weak. Harcourt showed no signs of movement. Jeff called 911.

* * *

"What?" Kate asked as Castle stared at the screen of his phone.

"Harcourt's in the hospital. My detective found him unconscious, but so far, there's no word on what's wrong with him. This is going to sound terrible, but I hope it's something serious, very serious."

Kate put a hand on his arm. "So, do I, Babe, and I have a hard time feeling guilty about it."


	84. Chapter 84

Emergence

Chapter 84

"That guy in 426, Burke Harcourt, is a strange case," Nurse Lindy Stolwick remarked.

"I'm with you there," Nurse Mark Greenwood agreed. "Everything he does, everything he says, is like a three-year-old. I would have thought he was just DD, but the police took his fingerprints to figure out who he is. Turns out he was a con in Sing Sing. There's nothing in his medical records about any kind of disability except for being a miserable human being."

"And none of the doctors can figure out what's wrong with him," Lindy added, "not even Morrissey, and you know what a genius that old bastard is. At first, they thought it was a stroke, but there's no sign of a clot or a bleed. The MRI showed no lesions or tumors in his brain. It's like most of his life just vanished."

"So, what are we going to do with him?" Mark wondered.

"Psych called Adult Services," Lindy explained. "They're going to see if he has any family that's willing to take him in, but if not, a group home or something, I guess, and some kind of therapy maybe. They might try to teach him his skills all over again, but so far it doesn't look like he's making any progress. He could be stuck at the developmental level where he is now, for the rest of his life. It's not our job to judge, but maybe that's some kind of karma."

Mark shrugged. "I don't know. It's the kind of weird thing they'll probably make a movie about someday. Shirley, in radiology, is always working on a screenplay, waiting for her big break. Maybe she'll write one about Burke Harcourt's case."

* * *

"What exactly did Tim do?" Kate asked.

"He says it's better if I don't know," Castle replied. "And it's definitely better if you don't know. You'll be an officer of the court someday. You might have to reveal it, and he no longer has the company to make things disappear."

"He has a point," Kate said. "You must love the irony of Harcourt's situation. He tried so hard to flaunt the system that was trying to protect Callie and Billy, and now he'll spend his life dependent on that same system to watch out for him."

"I couldn't swear to it, but I think, assuming that my father actually had anything to do with Harcourt's metamorphosis into a preschooler with a rap sheet, that he might have had that in mind. Now that Callie's problems are off the table and she's had her long-awaited reunion with Bessie, how is your investigation into Cassidy Yates coming?"

"I got Ryan to retrieve the evidence from the archives for me. He's been keeping up with the new challenges to forensics. He's been writing about them on his blog, and he's a little spooked by this case too. He hates making mistakes even more than I do."

"And that's saying something," Castle observed.

"Anyway, he's bringing the box over when he gets off his shift. I'll be back from class by then. If Cassidy's phone is still in there, we'll probably have to charge it, if we can. After that, we might be able to get the info I'm looking for off of it. If not, Columbia has some facilities that the Forensic Freedom project uses to re-analyze evidence. I can use them."

Castle checked his watch. "You don't have to leave for a class for another hour, do you?"

"No, I don't, Kate confirmed. "Did you have something special in mind?"

"I've been working on a scene for my new book, and I thought you might help me act it out."

"What kind of a scene?" Kate asked. "I'm not really into hanging off buildings right now."

"Nothing perilous, unless you choke on a strawberry," Rick assured her.

"I've had things in my mouth a lot larger than a strawberry," Kate reminded him, bumping her hip against his. "I haven't choked yet. Bring it on!"

* * *

Tim looked around the apartment he shared with Martha. He'd never stayed anywhere as long in his adult life, as he had in the condo with the unfortunate history, and he had no wish to be anywhere else. It might be nice to have a little more closet space, given Martha's extensive and incredibly colorful wardrobe. She was storing some of her things at Richard's place and every so often discovered that she had to run over there to retrieve something. The shower could be a little bigger too, but it was all right. The floors were showing their age, and he thought about having them refinished, then froze abruptly where he stood. He had never thought about anything like refinishing a floor in his life! He'd never cared enough about anywhere he was, to give a damn. But now he did. He wanted his home to be nice for Martha, and as a place for his grandchildren to visit. He shook his head. A whole new way of seeing his life was opening up, and floors and closet space were the least of it.

* * *

Kate had left for school and Castle had just settled himself at his desk to put down the details of the scene they had so enjoyably worked through, when he heard a familiar rap on the door. Even before he saw him, Rick knew who would be standing in the hallway. "Dad, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Tim strode into the room. "Richard, you know about marriage."

"I would say that I have gained my knowledge base the hard way, but yes, I am more than well acquainted with the subject and am presently enjoying the institution immensely."

"What do you know about proposals?" Tim queried.

"That when I overcomplicated them, the results turned out to be unfortunate. Why?"

"Um, I was considering, um, well Martha and I, uh…."

Rick snorted. "Dad, are you trying to tell me that you want to propose to my mother?"

"I know I'm a few decades late, but that's the scenario, yes. And I was thinking about the ring. Martha's tastes are, uh, unusual."

"If by that you mean, to say the least, flamboyant, I would agree. But there's a lot more to it. She's had some huge rocks offered to her over the years. I can remember at least one occasion when one didn't hold her attention for more than about ten minutes. Where Mother's gooey center is concerned, it's not the ring that matters; it's how she feels about the man down on one knee and holding it out to her. She does like diamonds, but she likes color even more. She has a ruby necklace she got one year when she was nominated for a Tony. She lent it to Kate once. I believe it's her favorite piece of jewelry. You might think about matching it."

Tim nodded. "I know the one. She's worn it to the openings of plays a couple of times. I know where she keeps it. Do you think a jeweler could make a ring like it, if I brought him a picture of the necklace?"

Castle clapped his father on the back. "Dad, I know just the guy. You get your picture; he'll come through for you. After all these years I'm not sure Mother will even want to get married again. But if she does, you'll have the right bauble to seal the deal."


	85. Chapter 85

Emergence

Chapter 85

"You're looking grim, Kate," Castle noted.

"I just got the results back from the tech at Columbia. Cassidy Yates' phone was at the movies that day, throughout the entire kill zone. Unless someone took it there for her and got it back to her before she was arrested, which is pretty unlikely, she's innocent."

"And you can't take that to a judge?"

"I could, Castle, or at least have someone who's passed the bar already, do it for me, but the standard for exculpatory evidence once someone has been convicted is very high. The phone suggests that Cassidy has an alibi, but it doesn't prove it."

"How about DNA?" Castle asked.

"There were traces found at the scene, but there was no match in the system. DNA amplification wasn't as good then as it is now, either. Something could have been missed. Unfortunately, the victim's clothes and bedding weren't preserved. I'm going to have to find the real killer."

"Where are you going to start?"

"If Cassidy didn't do it, then whoever really left that bite mark, might have. We know that the victim, Ned Snelling, was cheating on Cassidy. We also know that Cassidy was battered. That was established as part of her motive. It could be that Ned abused his other lovers as well, and one of them decided to take him out for it. Your file had a couple of names that were never investigated. I'll have to do that now."

"How?" Castle asked. "It's not like you can flash a badge and drag them off to interrogation anymore."

"No, but I can let my fingers do the walking and figure out the most likely places to find them."

"I could help you with that," Castle offered.

"Thanks, Babe. "I was counting on that."

* * *

Tim had never had sweaty palms. He had taken out terrorist leaders, with hands that were rock steady and dry as the Mojave. But his hands were moist now. He pushed open the door of Eli Moskovitz's small shop. When he'd visited Eli the first time, the man had pulled out a tray of fiery red stones, perfect companions to the ones in Martha's necklace. Eli had recommended a large gem and several smaller ones to encircle it, for Martha's ring. They looked okay to Tim. Eli had also told him that he'd design a setting that would match the necklace perfectly, but it would take some time. The delay had come as a relief to Tim, but it had been shorter than he'd anticipated. The ring was ready now. He only had to pay the balance of Eli's bill, and the jeweled promise would be his to give to Martha.

Eli smiled from behind the counter, his lips partially obscured by his mustache and a full beard. "Mr. Dillard, I think you will be pleased, very pleased indeed." He held out a ring for Tim to examine.

Tim studied the sparkling stones nested in the warm gleam of gold. Richard had been right in sending him to Eli. The ring was perfect. Now if he could just force the right words past the boulder in his throat, when Martha returned from the rehearsal for her new play. He scrubbed his palm against his pants-leg, an overwhelming need to double check his plan, overcoming him.

* * *

Castle distractedly examined Tim's ring. "It's beautiful Dad. I'm sure mother will love it."

Tim stared at Rick. "Something is on your mind, son, besides helping me figure out how to propose to your mother."

"Yeah. I've been doing some research for Kate. She's pretty sure that a woman she arrested on the basis of what was strong evidence at the time, was convicted of a murder she didn't commit. She wants to find the real killer, and I've been trying to help her track down the other suspects. I've checked public records, credit agencies and social media, but I haven't had much luck."

"Uh huh," Tim considered, "there are other places to look. Give me the names. I'll need your laptop."

Castle shrugged. "Why not? You couldn't do any worse than I'm doing."

Tim settled into the chair in Castle's office, lowering it a couple of inches to compensate for the difference in height. "Some databases don't show up on search engines," he explained. "A lot of them are classified. I don't have access to those anymore. But there are some that are just dumps; stuff picked up incidentally in surveillance of intelligence targets. There's stuff from phone conversations, meta-data, profiles on just about everyone in the country and a lot of the rest of the world. They're pretty easy to penetrate."

"That's scary."

"Yup," Tim agreed. "But in this case, they may come in handy. Names?"

"Candy Stevens and Gloria Mizzelli."

"Both of New York City, I take it?"

"Uh huh."

Tim's fingers rapidly tapped keys. "Mm. Candy Stevens. The one I'm looking at is transgender."

"I don't believe that our murder victim would have been interested in her. Kate and I are thinking that he liked to prey on vulnerable, probably young, women. Anyone who had the guts to go through a gender transition would probably be out of his league."

Tim nodded. "Okay. Here's another one, a waitress and aspiring actress. Several trips to the emergency room for suspicious injuries."

"She sounds a lot more likely."

"I'll send her data to your printer. Now for Gloria Mizelli. Hmm. She is interesting. She was picked up quite a bit on FBI wiretaps of the Spinelli crime family. She was never suspected of any criminal activity herself, at least nothing that figured in an FBI investigation, but she's the daughter of one of the capos. If someone in her family felt she was abused or even just disrespected, they might have decided to uphold her father's honor and take Snelling out. She has a big file. Got a thumb drive?"

Castle pointed. "In the top drawer".

Tim pulled out a USB drive shaped like a Dalek, arch enemy of Dr. Who. "Cute son, but it will do the trick. The IP address and the path I used, is in the memory of your computer, in case you need to look up anyone else. Make sure you don't lose it if you clean out your cache."

"Thanks, Dad, I will, but running down suspects is not what you came here for."

"You're right about that, Son. I've got the ring. What do I do now?"

"Mother once told me that all a woman wants is for a man to be down on one knee, ring in his hand, tears in his eyes. I don't think it has to be more complicated than that," Castle advised.

"Son, I haven't cried since the night I found out you'd been born while I'd been stuck out of the country. You know how long that's been. In my business, emotion was a liability."

"Try pulling a nose hair," Castle suggested. "I heard Mother tell that to a couple of her leading men who were blowing emotional scenes."

Tim raised an eyebrow. "Really, son?"

"Dad it's the sincerity that counts, and Mother can spot a phony performance a mile away. If you just tell her how you really feel, she'll know it. Trust me on that. She's read me like a book for years."

"I just hope if she does that to me, she likes what she reads."

Castle clapped his father on the shoulder. "Yeah, me too, Dad. Good luck."


	86. Chapter 86

Emergence

Chapter 86

Tim considered the track he was making by pacing the floor. The ancient hardwood would be even more in need of refinishing by the time Martha returned. He gazed at the chronograph on his wrist. It was overkill. He really didn't need the time in Moscow or Afghanistan anymore. It was just a long-ingrained habit to think in terms of global time zones. The one he was standing in had enough worries. Martha's rehearsal was supposed to have been over an hour before. It didn't take that long to get from the theater district to lower Manhattan. She might have stayed after it ended. She did that sometimes, to give the younger actors the benefit of her experience. Or there might have been an accident. Maybe he should check the news. He was reaching for his tablet when the door flew open. "Timothy, you would not believe what happened today. Charissa, the wife of our leading man, Samuel Adams Voinovich - imagine having to put that name up on a marquee - came into town to surprise him. She's an actor too. She's been at Playhouse Square in Cleveland. Anyway, she walked into the theater just as Sam and our ingenue, Mikaela, were in a clinch. Sam thought he was in trouble for a minute, then Charissa started instructing Mikaela on how to be more convincing. She was right, too. The whole scene played better. Geraint, our director, said he's going to send Charissa flowers for the assist." Martha ran her hand along the side of Tim's face, where the muscle of a clenched jaw was popping. "Darling, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Martha. At least I hope not. I just need you to listen to me for a minute."

"Of course. What's going on?"

Tim reached into his pocket and knelt, fighting the stiffness in his knees. Damn! He used to move a lot better than that. He clenched the ring tightly in his fist while using his other hand to grasp Martha's slender fingers. "I should have been able to do this a long time ago." He didn't need Richard's trick to moisten his eyes. He couldn't have stopped the tears if he'd tried. His voiced rasped. "We both know why I couldn't then, and I can never make up for lost time, but…." He held up the ring. "Martha Rodgers, will you marry me?"

Martha pressed a hand to her chest. "Well, damn it, Tim! It's about bloody time! Yes, of course, I'll marry you. Now let me see that ring." Tim slid it onto her finger. "It's just beautiful."

"I had a little help from Richard," Tim confessed.

"I expected as much. Our son is still clueless about a lot of things, but he knows jewelry."

"He knows a lot more than you give him credit for, Martha. He always has. So how do you want to do this? You know I can't put my face out there in some publicized event. Atlantic City? Vegas? City Hall?"

"If Richard agrees, how about his loft? He's had parties there that were a lot bigger than some weddings. So, have I. It would be private. No paparazzi. Just family. And Jo will make the world's most precious flower girl. There's a judge Richard and I play poker with. I've lost enough hands to him. I can ask him to do the ceremony. He owes me."

"This isn't the first time you've thought about this, is it Martha?"

"The innocent widening of Martha's eyes would have been perceivable in the back row of a good-sized theater. "Why, whatever do you mean?"

* * *

Kate and Rick slid into a booth at the diner where Candy Stevens worked. The waitress greeted them, her tiredness revealed by the tiny lines at the edge of her smile. What can I get for you folks?"

Castle perused the menu. "How's the Ruben?"

"I wouldn't," Candy counseled. "The corned beef is left over from last week. The cook is just covering it up with the cheese and the sauerkraut. But the roast beef and the turkey are fresh, so the clubs and the French dips are both okay. The fries are good too. The oil was just changed this morning."

Castle raised an eyebrow at his wife. "Kate?"

"The turkey club sounds good. No fries. And I want a strawberry shake."

Candy turned to Rick. "And you, Sir?"

"I definitely want the fries, with a French dip and a diet coke."

Candy nodded as she wrote on her pad. "I'll get that right out to you."

"So, what do you think?" Castle asked after Candy had gone to put their order in. "Does she seem the murderous type to you?"

"Castle, you know there is no such thing as a murderous type. Under the right circumstances, anyone can become a killer. But based on what we've seen, no. She's almost too forthcoming. I doubt that she could hide anything if she tried. I'm surprised she was mixed up with Snelling. He probably lied to her about being married."

"Some men will do that," Castle acknowledged. "I've never understood it. I've never been interested in them, but some women like having affairs with married men. No strings."

"Uh huh, I've seen a few women like that trying to come on to you."

"Obviously they were unsuccessful. My wife surpasses any woman I could ever meet."

Candy interrupted the conversation by returning to the table with the drinks and Castle's fries. "These just came out of the fryer. I thought I'd bring them while they're hot. They get soggy under the lamps."

"Thank you" Castle called after her, as Candy strode away again.

Kate rolled her eyes and grabbed one of Castle's fries. "She is almost pathologically honest, isn't she?"

"Unlike someone else, I'm looking at. If you wanted fries, you could have ordered some of your own."

Kate licked salt off her lips. "More fun to steal yours." She sucked hard on the straw standing up in her thick shake. "Mmm. That's amazing! Anyway, I think we can tentatively scratch Candy off the suspect list."

"If we're going to catch up with Gloria Mizzelli, we're talking about a much fancier venue," Castle noted. "Several of her conversations were picked up at a club called Cipolla."

"I know the place from my wilder days. Cipolla is Italian for onion."

"It figures. Lots of layers to peel. Snelling might have enjoyed stripping them. If you want to go, the newly engaged grandparents would probably be happy to watch Jo for the evening. Mother's new play hasn't opened yet."

"Wow, do you believe that they're finally getting married after all these years?"

"It's strange. I've lived so much of my life without a father and with a mother who flitted from man to man. I think she was always wondering about the one who got away. Now she knows, and everything is going to be boringly familial."

"Castle, your parents are a lot of things, but they will never be boring."

"You have a point there. So, assuming grandparental babysitting services will be available, will you be my incredibly exciting date at Cipolla tonight?"

"Depends. Are we taking the Ferrari?"

"Is there any other way for a glamorous power couple to go clubbing?"

I'm driving," Kate declared.

"You drive a hard bargain, Ms. Beckett. But to have the most beautiful woman in New York on my arm, how could I say no?"


	87. Chapter 87

Emergence

Chapter 87

Castle winced as Kate threw the keys to the Ferrari to a valet who looked about twelve. The eyes of the bouncer at the rope line swept appraisingly over the curves highlighted by Kate's shimmering silver dress, ending their journey at the hundred-dollar bill Castle held out. He took the money and let them pass. Appropriate to its name, the Cipolla was laid out in concentric circles. Things were relatively quiet at the outer tables, where conversation was possible above the music, and servers efficiently replenished overpriced drinks. Closer to the center, the atmosphere became more boisterous, with a mass of bodies gyrating against each other at the center.

Kate spotted Gloria Mizzelli in the second ring, surrounded by girlfriends who looked to be playing a game of hot or not about the men who passed by. Gloria herself was paying attention only to the screen of her phone, while she texted furiously."

Kate and Rick settled into one of the quieter tables to regard their quarry. "We need to get her away from her friends," Kate mused.

"Shouldn't be much of a problem," Castle responded. "One of the things in the voluminous file my father provided was the phone numbers she frequently called and her cell number." Castle pulled out his own phone. "I can send her a text to lure her over here."

"What kind of a text, Castle?"

"I'll tell her that I have information the cops missed about the death of Ned Snelling. If she had anything to do with it, she'll take the bait. Or even if it just spooks her after all the time that's passed since the murder, we'll know we have our femme fatale or at least person of interest."

Kate nodded slowly, her body moving unconsciously to the beat of the music. "I guess that could work, Babe. You can try."

Castle quickly tapped out a message, then smiled knowingly and beckoned to Gloria, when she looked around to find the text's author. Gloria stalked angrily to the table Rick and Kate occupied. "I don't know how you got my number, but I don't know any Ned Snelling. And if you bother me again, you'll not only wish you never showed up here; you'll wish you were never born." Hips twitching as she balanced on four-inch spike heels, Gloria strode away.

"Whether she's the murderer or not, she's definitely hiding something," Castle remarked.

"Oh, yeah," Kate agreed.

"Up for a victory dance?" Castle offered. "If we stay out long enough, Mother will act out a whole fairytale as Jo's bedtime story. That particular activity is one of the things I remember fondly about growing up as the son of Martha Rodgers."

"Then I wouldn't want our daughter to miss out on the experience," Kate said. "Sure, let's dance. I like this song. But let's stay out of the pit."

"Absolutely," Castle promised. "The only one who's going to make close contact with your delectable body is me."

* * *

"And they lived happily ever after," Martha proclaimed as Jo's eyelids drooped. She leaned over the bed and kissed her granddaughter's forehead. "Goodnight, Darling."

"Goodnight Gram," Jo responded drowsily putting her arms around her stuffed Prince Adam in his incarnation as the Beast.

"I think I'm going to have to learn some new stories," Martha told Tim, who was paging through a copy of Rick's latest Derrick Storm novel, in the loft's great room. "Until she got sleepy, Jo was saying Belle's dialogue before it was out of my mouth."

"She's a bright one," Tim confirmed.

"And she keeps her ears open," Martha added. "She asked me about our wedding. She wanted to know if we were going to write our own vows."

"Wow! Where did she get that?" Tim asked.

"I guess she asked Alexis about Rick and Kate's wedding and demanded a blow by blow description. I think she's disappointed that we're not having ours in the middle of the forest like her parents did. She's sure that fairies and elves would surround us. I assured her that the loft could be transformed into something magical."

"Do you think things are getting a little out of hand?" Tim queried. "We talked about a quiet, below the radar ceremony."

"And it will be," Martha assured him. "I'm just talking about flowers, maybe a satin canopy and of course the right music. Then after the ceremony, we can have the toasts and an appropriately sumptuous but intimate wedding dinner. What happens in the Castle loft, stays in the Castle loft. I promise."

"Maybe we should have gone to Vegas," Tim muttered under his breath.

* * *

"Daddy, I have a problem," Gloria Mizzoli confided, over thin pancakes with raspberry sauce, at Mario's All Hours Breakfast."

"If my little girl has a problem, then I have a problem," Dino Mizzoli replied. "And I know how to take care of problems. What's bothering you, Baby?"

"You remember Ned Snelling?" she asked.

Dino's knife clanged against his plate. "Lying scumbag we sent to hell years ago."

"Uh huh, but suddenly people are asking questions."

Dino's dark brows descended over his darker eyes. "What people?"

Gloria pulled her phone out of her purse and brought up a picture of Kate and Rick on the screen. "These people. I don't know who they are, but they know something. I warned them off, but I don't know if they got the message."

Dino studied the picture. "I know her. She's a cop, or she used to be. Kate Beckett. She busted a couple of my boys after they hit Gino Moretti. She made it stick, even with our consigliere on the case. And I think I know who the guy is too. Some famous writer was trailing around after her. Big bucks. Name of Castle, I think. I heard she married him. That complicates things. Those two can't just disappear into the Meadowlands. There would be way too many questions."

"Then what can we do, Daddy?"

"Snelling's stupid wife already took the fall for Snelling's murder. The case is closed. It would take a hell of a lot to reopen it. Beckett probably has nothing and is just fishing. Maybe Castle wants to make a mystery out of the case for one of his books or something. So, you just sit tight. Don't say anything. Don't do anything. But if those two keep sniffing around, we'll just have to find a way to plug up their noses."

* * *

"What's the next step with Gloria Mizzoli?" Castle asked Kate as they strolled hand in hand back to the loft after walking Jo to school.

"The case is more complicated now that we're involved with organized crime, Castle. I'm going to have to use my old contacts, especially with RICO investigators and the U.S. Attorney's office. I don't know how enthusiastic they'll be about working on a closed case, but if I can get them interested in getting something on the Mizzolis and the Spinelli family, something may pop. I need to leave for class as soon as we get back, but when I get home later, I'll have a lot of calls to make and emails to send."

"Promise me you'll be careful, Kate," Castle cautioned. "Keep your name out of it and let law enforcement do the heavy lifting. You know I have my own contacts with the families. I've heard a lot about the Spinellis. They can be pretty damn ruthless. If they think you pose any kind of a threat to them, they will send someone after you."

"I'll keep it on the down low, Babe. I promise."


	88. Chapter 88

Emergence

Chapter 88

Dino Mizzolli sent the balls in the Newton's Cradle on his desk clinking loudly as he rose from his chair. "Things are getting too damn hot! N.Y.P.D. has upped their surveillance, and so have the Feds."

"I looked into it, boss," his lieutenant, Seppe Maroni, said. "It's because of that Beckett bitch trying to spring Cassidy Yates. She put out feelers to find out who really did Ned Snelling."

Dino slammed his fist into his palm with a smack that echoed through the room. "Sonofabitch! We're going to have to do something about her, and that husband of hers too. But no guns. It can't look like a hit. Get Lida in here - yesterday."

"On it, boss," Seppe responded.

Dino settled heavily back in his chair, raking his fingers through his too rapidly thinning hair. He didn't need this. Gloria should have stayed away from that asshole Snelling. But it was too late to do anything about that now, except clean up the new mess."

* * *

Castle was sure there could not be one brightly colored bloom left in the Flower Mart. The blossoms were everywhere in the loft, covering every possible surface. His eyes and his nose itched, and he wondered if his mother was living out a '70's acid dream. Martha didn't look '70's. That was just as well, since the hem of the dress she'd worn to marry her first husband had come at most to mid-thigh, and the flowers had been in her hair. The gown she'd picked to wear for her wedding to Tim, was more demure, at least for Martha. Making no pretensions of virginity, the dress was sewn in blocks of jewel tones, with décolletage that was only modestly revealing and a shirt that swept the tops of her emerald pumps. The ensemble was topped with a wide-brimmed hat, and her ruby necklace graced her neck.

Rick had introduced his father to his tailor, who'd crafted a suit that perfectly fit Tim's dimensions, without a hint of the quirky flare that might have normally been provided for the son. Castle, as best man, was outfitted to match. Their one bow to Martha's riotous color scheme was wearing matching ruby red ties. On a girls' day out, Kate and Martha had helped Jo select a dress for the occasion. Despite her love of Disney princesses, she had turned up her nose at frills and ruffles, preferring to look more like Briar Rose, while she was sojourning with the fairies in the woods. Jo had agreed to wear shoes instead of the bare feet the disguised royal usually sported, running around the gathering, in soft brown ballet flats. As maid of honor, and fellow red-head, Alexis wore colors similar to her grandmother's.

Alexis had prevailed on some friends, a string quartet from the music department at Columbia, to provide the music. Castle had hired his usual caterer, who was accustomed enough to the loft to set up with little supervision, asking questions only about the menu and number of guests. Castle didn't know all the help who showed up, but turnover was pretty high with the company, and he didn't give much thought to a new member of the crew. Tim had made sure that the number of guests was kept to a minimum, consisting of Jim Beckett, Kate's Aunt Theresa, and several of Martha's oldest friends from the theater community.

Judge Markway arrived, and at Martha's request, wore his judges' robe. He took his place with Tim and Castle beneath a flower-decked, green satin canopy. The violins played the first strains of the Spring movement of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and Jo started down the satin covered aisle, throwing iris petals ahead of Alexis and Martha. Tim clasped Martha's hand as she came to stand beside him, and nodded at Judge Markway.

Markway cleared his throat. "We are gathered here today to witness the union of Martha Rodgers and Tim Dillard. Love is not reserved for the young. It has no season. Martha and Tim have found each other in the fullness of years, with the wisdom of experience. They have come to know that every hour, every day is precious, and are determined to live out whatever time God will grant them, together. Martha and Tim have written their own promises to each other, to be witnessed by this assemblage. Martha, please begin."

Martha swiped at tears that threatened to overflow her eyes. "Tim, all my life, I have been searching for the man who is truly the other half of my heart, my soul. My choices were not always wise, but I always knew the right one lay ahead, I had only to find it. The day you appeared, hidden behind your mask, and took me in your arms, I knew that I had. I promise you, my love, my hope, and as much joy as I can bring you, for all the days and times of our lives." Alexis handed Martha a thick gold band which she slipped on Tim's battle-hardened finger.

Markway nodded at Tim, who drew in a deep breath. "Martha, I never dreamed a day like this would come. Few know the darkness my life has held, and fewer still understand it. But you are the light in my world. Everything you touch becomes new. With you, I have become a man I could have never conceived. I want to spend every day I'm allowed on this earth in the glow of your presence and reflect your light with as much love as I can give." Castle put a gold band set with a ring of tiny sparks of red, into his father's palm. With a trembling hand, Tim slid it into place.

Markway looked out at the rapt group of guests. "As Martha and Tim have proclaimed their wish to wed in their vows and by the exchange of rings, by the power vested in me by the city and State of New York, I now pronounce them husband and wife."

Tim needed no prompting to kiss his bride, to ardent applause.

* * *

Jo was fascinated by the catering staff. To her, the servers in their black aprons and tightly pulled back buns, seemed more like something out of a movie than people she would see on the sidewalks in her neighborhood, or at school. Her eye was caught by one woman with dark hair and dark eyes, who pulled a small vial out of her apron pocket, quickly eyed the contents then shoved it back in again with what Jo could only interpret as an evil smile. The girl gave a little shiver, and looked around for her father, who was preparing to give a toast. She tugged on his jacket. "Daddy, I think that lady over there is the evil queen in disguise."

Castle gazed down at his daughter, expecting to see her in the grip of a childlike Castle flight of imagination. He was surprised, instead, to see pale cheeks and a quivering lower lip. "Sweetheart, why do you think the lady is the evil queen?"

"Because she's hiding a little bottle in her pocket like the evil queen hides poison."

Castle caught Kate's eye and motioned her over. "If our daughter is right, we have a problem."

Tim joined them smiling. "Thanks for the wordsmithing help son. I don't think I could have made it through that without it." His expression hardened with instinctive wariness. "What's going on?"

"Maybe nothing, Dad," Castle whispered, "Kate and I are going to find out. But if there is, we may need a little assist."


	89. Chapter 89

Emergence

Chapter 89

Castle approached the evil queen, grinning broadly. "My wife and I would like to talk to you in my office. The groom may have a special request."

Lida nodded agreeably. "Of course, Mr. Castle. Anything he needs."

Rick and Kate ushered the server into Rick's office and closed the door behind them.

"What can I do for you or the groom?" Lida asked.

Kate pulled a tiny bottle from Lida's apron pocket. "For starters, you can tell us what this is."

"Liquid sweetener," Lida explained.

"And what were you going to sweeten?" Castle inquired. "I've done business with your boss for a long time, and I know she doesn't allow her employees to eat or drink on the job. And there is already a full range of sweeteners out on the condiments table."

"I was saving it for later," Lida protested.

Tim emerged from the bedroom, and Kate handed him the vile. He examined it for a moment and sniffed the contents. "Venlafaxine. Pretty common drug. Popular with some folks I've known. The right dose treats depression. An overdose can mimic cardiomyopathy. She puts this in champagne or espresso, and her victim will be assumed to have died of natural causes, most likely a virus." Tim pressed his finger hard against a spot on Lida's neck, sending lightning bolts of pain through her body. "Was this meant for me?"

Lida panted, trying to catch her breath. "No! I don't even know who the fuck you are, other than some old guy getting married."

Tim pressed again. "Then why are you here? Who do you work for?"

Lida choked as her fingernails drew blood from her palms. "Dino Mizzoli. He sent me here to take out those two."

Tim compressed Lida's carotid artery until she passed out. Castle scooped her up and laid her on the bed a few feet away. Tim turned to his son. "Richard, we can't let this ruin the day for Martha."

"No of course not." Castle agreed. "How long is our would-be poisoner going to be out?"

"Couple of hours, maybe more."

"That will work," Castle decided. "I'll tell her supervisor that she wasn't feeling well and we're letting her rest. You sweep Mother off for your honeymoon, the way you planned. Kate, can you get our friends from the Twelfth in here, after the guests are gone?"

"Yeah. Ryan and Esposito may be pissed off at not being invited to a party, but they'll do their jobs."

Castle nodded. "I'll make a suitable settlement with them later. Espo will do anything for Knicks floor seats, and I can get Ryan tickets for the opening night of the new Neil Patrick Harris magical musical. He should love that. In the meantime, we need to get back to our guests. I have toasts to give."

* * *

Flanked by his consigliere, Lorenzo Nussbaum, Dino Mizzoli stared dismissively at Kevin Ryan. "My client asserts his fifth amendment rights to remain silent," Nussbaum announced.

"Fine," Ryan replied. "Then he can listen. Lida Ricci flipped on you, Mizzoli. You sent her to poison Kate Beckett and Richard Castle. That's conspiracy to commit murder. And there is surveillance to back up her movements in and out of your office. That's corroborative evidence. You can stay silent for the next decade, but you're still going down. The only way you're going to help yourself is if you can come up with some mitigating circumstances."

"My client admits to nothing, but hypothetically, what kind of mitigating circumstances?" Nussbaum inquired.

"Preventing trauma to a loved one, perhaps," Ryan suggested.

Nussbaum turned to Mizzoli who shook his head vigorously. "Detective Ryan, I need some time with the microphones turned off, to confer with my client," the counselor declared.

Ryan shrugged. "Take all the time you need." He flicked a switch on the table and left the room.

"No way I'm going to give the cops my daughter," Mizzoli insisted when Ryan was gone. "Anyway, Gloria didn't kill Snelling. She just set things up, got Snelling hot, gave him the love bite the stupid cops pinned on Cassidy Yates. One of my boys took him out."

"Which one?" Nussbaum asked.

"Ricardo. A cousin of Luca Spinelli. I drop even a hint about him to the cops, and the family would make sure I never speak again."

"Then you stay mum," Nussbaum advised. "Having Lida come to your office is not enough evidence to prove conspiracy, the cop was bluffing about that, and the word of a woman who tries to poison people at a wedding won't be worth much in court. So, you ride this out. Lida is finished, but the cops can't touch you or Gloria."

"That Beckett bitch is not going to quit," Dino insisted. "I still need to do something about her, and that bastard, Castle."

"Let things die down for a while," Nussbaum urged. "If they continue to be a problem, there are accidents, bad accidents, in this city every day."

* * *

Martha turned to face Tim as they sat side by side in front of the fireplace at an isolated inn, nestled in the woods of Vermont. "When are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Tim insisted.

"Oh please! Something happened after our wedding when you had your little tête-à-tête with Katherine and Richard. You've been pulled in tight ever since. I am not made of glass, Timothy. I do not need to be protected. I've been through a lot with those two. I lived through the nights when Richard didn't come home, wondering if he'd interfered in one case too many. Whatever is going on, I can handle it. So, give!"

Tim ran a hand through his hair, eerily reminding Martha of a similar gesture she'd seen her son perform since he was a teenager. "One of the catering staff was a hitter. She was there to poison Kate and Richard. She didn't succeed. There was no need to spoil things for you."

"No need to spoil things!" Martha repeated. "Timothy, Richard is our son, yours and mine. Kate is our daughter-in-law. Anything that concerns them is my business, whether you think it will upset me or not. So, don't you dare keep anything like that from me again. And don't you tell Richard and Katherine to try to cover anything up, either."

Tim stroked his wife's anger flushed face, and drew her against him, pressing a kiss to her flaming hair. "I won't. I promise."

* * *

"Mommy, what happened to the evil queen?" Jo asked. "I saw Uncle Kevin and Uncle Javi take her away after Gram and Cousin Tim's wedding."

"You were right that she wanted to do a bad thing," Kate explained. "But she's locked up now, and she'll be locked up for a very long time. She won't be able to hurt anyone."

"Why did she come here?" Jo pressed.

"Because a very bad man sent her."

"Like Captain Hook in Peter Pan when he tried to poison Peter, but Tinkerbell drank the poison instead?"

"Something like that, but no one had to drink any poison. Everyone is fine."

"So, the story has a happy ending?"

"I think it will," Kate confirmed.

Jo nodded solemnly. "That's good. Stories should have happy endings. Can I go get a granola bar now?"

"Only one. Daddy wants us all to go out to lunch when he finishes the chapter he's writing."

"Okay," Jo agreed, skipping off to the kitchen.

"I heard that," Castle said, coming up behind Kate. "We got Lida Ricci but Dino Mizzoli and the Spinellis are still out there, and Cassidy Yates is still in prison. I hope you're right about a happy ending."

"Yeah," Kate agreed. "Me too."

A/N There is a drug called Venlafaxine, also known as Effexor. It has been known to cause symptoms of cardiomyopathy in overdose. Other than that, I made up the details about that and what Tim did. I am not privy to CIA methods.


	90. Chapter 90

Emergence

Chapter 90

Kate jammed her phone back in her pocket. "They can't hold Dino Mizzoli."

"You expected that, didn't you?" Castle asked.

"I did," Kate admitted, "but I was hoping that the D.A. would find a way to indict him. Having Lida Ricci go down for trying to poison us, doesn't help Cassidy Yates at all."

"The man's a capo. He has his fingers in a lot of unsavory pies. There's got to be another angle to use to go at him. Wasn't there a lot of digging into that kind of thing going on when you were with the U.S. Attorney' office?"

"There was," Kate confirmed, "but investigations like that are slow, stretching over years, sometimes decades, to put all the little pieces together to make a bulletproof case."

"There's got to be something you can use," Castle insisted.

"There might be. Almost all of the evidence comes from following the money. We can see where Mizzoli has his; gather evidence on something completely unrelated to Ned Snelling's murder, to get a hook into him."

"We could use the database my father showed me for that. Anything that wasn't part of an active case would have been dumped there."

Kate sighed and shook her head. "That's one huge haystack, Castle."

"But at least it's a haystack. I'm up to date with Black Pawn, at least for the moment. I can dive into it while Jo's at school and you're in class. Then if I see anything that might lead somewhere, we can go over it together."

"Babe, that's a hell of a lot of work. Are you sure you want to do it?"

Castle's eyes darkened. "Kate, the idea of an innocent woman rotting in jail doesn't sit any better with me than it does with you. We solve the puzzle together, like always, right?"

Kate put her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek into the warm comfort of the flannel shirt he wore. "Yeah, Babe. Just like always."

* * *

"The floors look incredible," Martha noted.

"I thought it would be nice to have them refinished while we were away," Tim said. "Jo likes to slide around in her socks and pretend that she's ice skating."

"Kate and Richard said they're going to teach her to do the real thing. I remember when Richard first took Alexis to the rink at Rockefeller Center. I was in town doing a soap opera, so I got to watch. Her little hand was wrapped around three of his fingers. She knew he wouldn't let her fall."

"I wish I could have seen that. I looked in on them as much as I could, but it seemed like there was always something brewing somewhere that I had to take care of."

Martha put a hand to his cheek. "I know. But you're here now. And we don't even know what's going on. We never did turn on a television, and we barely checked the internet while we were gone. We should check in with kids."

The crinkles at the corners of Tim's eyes deepened. "Which is your way of saying you missed them. I did too." Tim checked the time on the simple, one zone, watch he had finally adopted. "Jo won't be home from school yet, and Kate is probably in class too. If you want, we can see if they're up for a visit tonight."

"I'd like that."

* * *

Castle stretched wearily and checked the time at the bottom of the screen of his laptop. He needed to go pick up Jo in a few minutes, and he had made zero progress. He was beginning to see why the investigations into crime families moved so slowly. It was a wonder that they moved at all. There were thousands of references to the Spinelli family and hundreds to Dino Mizzoli, but so far, he hadn't seen anything that Kate could use. He suspected that the family was constantly on guard against eavesdropping, so they talked in general terms like "the business" or used coded references that he couldn't begin to interpret. When he did figure them out, he might have one hell of a book, or maybe even a screenplay, but that would be far in the future - if it happened at all. He pushed back his chair, rubbed his neck and rotated his shoulders. The short walk to Jo's school would do him good, and soaking in some of the the limitless energy that emanated from his daughter would renew his enthusiasm.

Jo bounced more than she walked. "Mrs. Walker gave me a new book today, Daddy. She said the one the class is reading is too easy for me. It's a science book."

"What kind of science?" Castle asked.

"It's about seeing things around us, like leaves and bugs, and finding out how they work and what they do. It has projects in it. Mrs. Walker says she wants me to do them so I won't get bored."

"That sounds very smart of Mrs. Walker. Your sister didn't start doing them at your age, but she loved science projects. We used to work on them together. What's your first one?"

"I'm supposed to look at all the stuff where we live and figure out how many ways I can make bubbles and what they can do. Not just like Mommy's bubble bath, or my shampoo, but with things in the kitchen. I'm supposed to ask for permission for everything I use, and you and Mommy are allowed to help, as long as you don't do everything for me or tell me what to write in my report."

"Sounds terrific and not at all boring. When is your report due?"

"Whenever I finish it. Mrs. Walker says the projects are all extra credit. I still have to do all the regular assignments. Some of them are really easy, like my spelling. I knew a lot of those words before I ever went to school."

"I know. I was like that in school too, which was lucky because I missed so many of my classes when I traveled with your Gram. Just get through the easy things as fast as you can, so you can get to the fun stuff, and Mommy and I will help you with whatever you need."

"Thanks, Daddy. Gram and Cousin Tim are coming home today, aren't they? I want to tell Cousin Tim about the new book. He likes science. He didn't tell me how, but he said it's helped him get out of a lot of jams. He meant trouble, not what we put on sandwiches."

Castle grinned. "Spreading Cousin Tim on bread does make a very funny picture. Yes, I guess science was very important to him," Castle considered, remembering his father's easy identification of the drug in Lida's vial, and efficient use of pressure points.

"You write books and things. Mommy was a police detective, and she's going to be a lawyer. Gram's an actor. She tells us that a lot. What did Cousin Tim do?"

"I guess you could call him a repairman," Castle said. "When something went wrong someplace, he was sent to fix it."

Jo tilted her head and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, in one of Kate's unconscious gestures, as she mulled over Castle's description of his father's profession. "He must know about a lot of things to do something like that."

"He does." Castle agreed. "I find out about more of them, all the time."


	91. Chapter 91

Emergence

Chapter 91

Castle dug through the collection of small toys he'd accumulated over the years from cereal boxes and Christmas stockings. He grinned as his fingers closed over just what he wanted. It had been a long time since he'd thought about submarines other than Captain Nemo's Nautilus. His height and the breadth of his shoulders made a ride on an underwater vessel less of a fantasy and more of an uncomfortable imagining. But the tiny model he held ran on baking powder. It would be a perfect addition to Jo's first science project. Jo had already explored the contents of the refrigerator. Eggs beaten to a stiff foam had produced meringue kisses she'd shared with her classmates and made a towering topping for her favorite chocolate custard pie. A submarine would be a different kind of adventure. But that wouldn't happen for hours. As tedious as it was, Castle needed to get back to digging around for useful clues to evildoing by Dino Mizzoli. He had a start. Mizzoli and his soldiers had spent a lot of time "visiting" tenants in a building that was subsequently acquired and demolished to make way for a gentrified housing and shopping complex. Spinelli money was clearly involved, but not all Spinelli money. The designation for the investors, who had apparently regarded the development as a means to cleanse their cash, was "Beckers." Castle had no idea what that meant, but he guessed Kate or his father might. His father knew the overseas players and Kate was familiar with money laundering schemes, from her time working for Elizabeth Weston. Castle was determined to use the next few hours to find as many details as he could, before consulting with either of them.

* * *

"Any sign of Beckett nosing around, Seppo?" Dino Mizzoli asked.

" _Niente_ , boss. I put a couple of guys on her and her husband, but they didn't see nothing. She's just been going to her law classes at NYU, and when they see him, he's just going to the store or taking his daughter back and forth to school. Maybe having Lida show up at that wedding at their place scared them off."

"That would be a suckers' bet," Dino declared, "but as long as there's no activity, Nussbaum said if I wanted the cops to leave me alone, to leave those two alone. So, have your guys keep checking, but don't have anyone do anything unless I tell you."

"Got it, Boss."

"So, what was the message the Don sent about the Beckers?"

"They're happy with the way things went uptown, so happy that they want to do another deal, on Staten Island this time. Sandy wrecked things pretty good in a lot of neighborhoods down there, and there's one that would make for a great project."

"Yeah, I know the one. Practically right on the water. Beautiful." Dino knocked the balls on his executive toy. "I wouldn't mind living there myself, but my Adriana is so scared of hurricanes that I can't even talk her into having a place in Florida. So, to keep the peace, I have to stick to inland high rises. So, what's the problem on Staten Island? Whose asses do we have to kick out of there?"

"There are a few families, fishermen. They've worked on boats there for generations. They fixed up their houses after the storm and insist on staying put. The Don already tried to buy them out with the Beckers' money. Offered them a pretty good deal, too. But they refused."

"So, our boys have to make sure they can't refuse," Dino concluded. "If they don't have boats, they can't fish. Have the bomb guy, Messina, figure out how too blow up a couple of them. That should make things a whole lot more agreeable."

"I'll get him on it right away."

* * *

Castle heard a now familiar rap on the door. "Hi, Dad. Come in. I was just about to go get Jo at school. You want to walk with me?"

"Might as well. Martha is doing some kind of facial. I've seen nests of terrorists that were less frightening. She looks like she's a commando that just climbed out of a swamp, and I'm afraid to open my mouth."

Castle laughed and clapped his father on his shoulder. "I remember that mask, well. I could never see a difference after she washed it off, but Mother has always been convinced that it leaves her purified. I've never been about to argue."

"Me either," Tim agreed. "But after seeing her like that, the fresh face of my granddaughter will be a relief."

"I don't know how fresh it will be. I think her class was going to be experimenting with face painting today for some carnival the school is having to raise money for a kid who's going through cancer treatment. I had to sign a permission slip. But Jo will still look a lot better than Mother."

"How's your research going?" Tim asked as he and Castle strolled along the sidewalk.

"I might have found something. Do you have any idea what 'Beckers' might mean?"

The lines in Tim's brow deepened. "In what context?"

"Foreign investors, maybe."

Tim nodded slowly. "Yeah. I've heard of them. Bunch of kleptocrats who were allied with the dick who used to run Uzbekistan. A lot of that money flowed from the cotton slavery that was abolished in 2016. They've been working to put their cash into the U.S. for a while, now. They lost their political power, but the money they stole never found its way back to the people."

"That fits in perfectly with what I found. I'll just have to see if Kate can figure out how to use the information, somehow."

* * *

"Ms. Beckett," Professor Wasserman called, as Kate was leaving class. "A word?"

Kate regarded the blond who looked more like a model than a constitutional scholar but had been editor of the Law Review in her own Law School days. "Is there a problem?"

"I don't know, Kate. Is there? You seem distracted."

"I guess I am," Kate admitted. "I'm still trying to get Cassidy Yates out of prison, and nothing seems to be working."

"Causes like that are extremely challenging," Shelley Wasserman agreed. "But you can't allow yourself to get bogged down. You know how tough the competition is in your class, and I'm convinced that you can emerge at the front of the pack, but you'll have to stay focused. It's unfortunate, but you and I both know that there are a lot of people in prison, even on death row, who don't deserve to be there. At least Yates is here in New York where no one is going to stick a needle in her arm. If you keep plugging, you may eventually find a way to get her freed. But right now, you need to concentrate on what you're learning here. Are you hearing me?"

"I hear you," Kate acknowledged. "My work in your class won't suffer."

"Glad to hear it. "I'd hate to see my most promising student sabotage herself. The better you do here, the more opportunities you'll have to help a lot more Cassidy Yateses down the road. And I for one, am looking forward to watching you do it."

"Thanks," Kate said, turning to leave the room. She'd make sure she got her classwork done well, but no way was she backing down on trying to help Cassidy. Castle had texted that he might have something. She just hoped it was something good.


	92. Chapter 92

Emergence

Chapter 92

"What's wrong, Kate?" Castle asked. "What I told you should have been good news, not have made your brow all wrinkly."

"Nothing's wrong, exactly, Babe. It's just that Professor Wasserman warned me to keep my eye on the prize, which as she sees it, is coming out at the top of my class in law school. She thinks that trying to free Cassidy will take too much time away from my studies."

Castle snorted. "She doesn't know the Kate Beckett I do. You are the mistress of multi-tasking. However, it is all the more reason to throw open the prison doors for Cassidy as soon as possible. I figure we keep a lookout for stories of people being strong-armed to leave their homes or businesses and check for signs that Mizzoli is involved. If one of his soldiers can be caught in the act, we'll have another potential witness to flip on him."

"There are a couple of big ifs there, Castle, but I guess it's the best we've got."

"Listen, I can monitor the newsfeed across the internet, while you hit the books. If I set my alerts right, I can keep toiling away for Black Pawn at the same time. Everything will be fi…. What was that!"

Kate and Rick rushed into the kitchen to find a geyser spewing out of a two-liter bottle in the sink, soaking the floor, while a foam-flecked Jo looked on helplessly. "I'm sorry, Mommy, Daddy, I should have done it outside, like they did in the Mentos video."

Fighting the erupting spray, Castle grabbed the bottle and poured it down the sink. "You put Mentos in there? I didn't think we had any."

"We didn't Daddy," Jo said. "But I wanted to see what would happen if I tried it with some of the pills you take when your tummy hurts after dinner."

"After seeing this, I might think twice about taking any more of them," Castle declared. "All in all, a successful, if messy experiment, but you know the rules, Jo."

"If I make a mess, I have to clean it up, I know."

"And you might want a shower too when you're finished," Kate pointed out. "Call me if you have any trouble washing that stuff out of your hair."

"Thanks, Mommy."

"Talk about distractions," Castle said after Jo had begun her work with a mop, and he and Kate retreated to the bedroom so he could change his soda spritzed clothes. "It was cool though, wasn't it?"

Kate giggled. "It was. And by the way, you have some of that stuff in your hair, too. I can at least make you the same offer I made to our daughter."

"I will look forward to it," Castle said.

Jo was in bed when Kate stepped under a hot spray to join Rick. "Finished studying constitutional law?" he murmured.

Kate ran her finger through the drops of water glistening in the fine hair on his chest. "I thought I might study something more interesting for a while."

"And what might that be?" Castle inquired.

"Anatomy."

Castle cupped the beckoning curves of her well-rounded behind. "What kind of anatomy?"

"How the different parts fit together."

"An interesting study indeed," Castle agreed. "And where would you like to start?"

Kate rose to her toes. "We might start with this," she suggested, pressing her lips to his. Castle pulled her against him as her tongue searched out its mate, twining, and teasing. Warming mist swirled around them, merging with the heat rising from their bodies. Skin to skin, they grappled for more touch, more connection. As the water poured down, Rick lifted Kate, her legs instinctively wrapping themselves around his back. Panting, he braced her against the back wall of the shower stall.

Kate clung, with the palm of her left hand at the nape of his neck, the fingers thrust into his hair. Her right hand slid downward, following the path of the pelting spray, until it encircled what she sought. Hot and slick, she guided him within. Air forced from deep in his lungs, he thrust, filling her and retreating to push even more deeply inside. Her head fell back, the water finding her open lips. She gasped as drops found their way down her throat.

"Kate?"

"I'm fine! Just don't stop Babe, whatever you do, don't stop!"

The glass enclosure vibrated with Kate's frenzied ride. Air desperately blasted from her mouth. "Oh God! Please!" Her legs almost slipped lose as the shock wave of her climax tore through her. Castle's biceps bulged, gripping her hard against his answering release. Slowly, they disentangled, Kate's feet gingerly finding solid ground on the shower floor. You okay?" Castle asked unsteadily."

Kate rested against his body, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Wow! I think that's one test we both aced."

* * *

The newly refinished floor was rapidly losing its sheen under Tim's pacing feet. He'd spotted tails on both Richard and Kate. They hadn't made a hostile move; they were just watching. If they were Mizzoli's soldiers, he suspected any maneuvers he'd make to take them out, would only escalate Mizzoli's efforts. But he could turn the tables and tail one of them. If things were as he assumed, he might even plant a bug or two. He still knew where to source whatever equipment he needed. He could take care obtaining it while Richard was safe in the loft and Kate's classmates surrounded her, then follow one or another of the men, depending on which one abandoned his task first. Fortunately, Martha was away at an actor's retreat. She wouldn't be asking any questions, so he'd have no reason to lie. He'd tie up his operation before she returned. Tim seized his chance after Richard walked Jo home from school and his shadow abandoned his watch. Tim trailed his quarry uptown by way of the subway, to an unmarked but well-maintained office building. He watched the digital display as the elevator car carrying his target rose. It stopped on the 16th floor before returning to the lobby. Tim took another car to the 14th floor, making his way up to the 16th story by way of the stairs. He noted several cameras and activated a jammer to interrupt the feed temporarily. The floor was occupied by only one very large suite of offices. That would make things less complicated. He planted several tiny, almost invisible devices on the walls the offices shared with the hallway. They would transmit in tight bursts and only when he triggered them, making a sweep for bugs useless. Their range would be limited. He would need to hide a receiver-recorder that he could retrieve later, somewhere nearby. He descended four flights of stairs before calling the elevator again. Quickly exiting the lobby, he studied the outside the building. Tim grinned when he noticed a metal box affixed to the side of the structure, intended to contain an extra copy of the building plans for use by emergency responders. It was as if the surveillance gods had placed it there for him. He quickly picked the lock, whose master key no doubt resided at the nearest fire station. There was more than enough room inside for both his electronics and the papers already there. He made a quick check to make sure that the triggering app on his phone was functioning, then whistled his way to the subway entrance, to return to lower Manhattan.


	93. Chapter 93

Emergence

Chapter 93

"Son, I just picked something up from Spinelli headquarters," Tim announced striding into the loft.

"Do I want to know how you got it?" Rick asked.

"Probably not. You can't be forced to admit what you don't know. But listen. Mizzoli is in charge of some kind of building project where they are using extreme methods of persuasion to convince the current residents to move out of their homes. I don't know exactly where. What I heard, just referred to 'the island,' and they called the people still hanging on there, fisherfucks."

Castle shook his head in disgust. "Nice. But that tracks with what I've found out. There's an attempt being made to build an upscale complex on some prime Staten Island waterfront real estate. It's an old community. The seafaring tradition has been passed down through generations. I can understand why the people there don't want to leave. There have been reports of threats and a couple of attacks, but the police there haven't collared anyone."

"Well, they might now if you and Kate can get on it. From what I gathered, there's a contingent going down there tonight, after the boats are moored. They're planning to blow at least a couple of them up. The leader of the operation is one Luca Spinelli. As far as I can make out, he's one of Mizzoli's soldiers, but as a Spinelli, moving up in the organization."

"I get it, Dad. We need to have the cops on Staten Island catch Luca and Mizzoli's Marauders in the act. Then the D.A. can use whatever comes out, to go after Mizzoli, and maybe get together with the RICO folks to go after the whole Spinelli organization." Castle looked at his watch. "Kate's in class now, but she should be done in a few minutes. I can text her to get in touch with our guys at the Twelfth and get them to call the Staten Island cops in to break up the game of let's bomb the boat."

"Good hunting son, but tell Kate to be careful how she makes her calls. She's being watched."

"She knows it, Dad. She spotted her tail the first day he appeared. She spotted you tailing him, too."

Tim shook his head. "I should have known. Your woman has excellent skills son."

Castle's eyebrows wagged as a crooked grin spread across his face. "Dad, you have no idea."

* * *

"For Luca Spinelli, the job would be a piece of cake. Messina had provided the special packages and instructions on where to place them to get the biggest boom for the buck. All Luca and a couple of his boys had to do was sneak onto the boats and plant them. There would be security, but all the morons who owned the boats could afford was one guy. It would be easy to avoid him, or just take him out if the asshole spotted them. Luca would be finished in time to enjoy a late supper, a bottle of his favorite Chianti, and the spectacular sex that would come afterward, with Giada."

* * *

"They're here," Sergeant Edwards whispered into his walkie-talkie.

"Everyone hold until they take the explosives aboard a boat.," Captain Montrose commanded. "Move in on my signal."

"Copy that," Edwards replied.

Luca Spinelli and Bruno Bertolli strode confidently aboard the battered but seaworthy Marcella's Joy. Luca consulted the sheet of instructions and diagrams he carried, using light from his cell phone. We need to put Messina's blow up toy as close as we can to the fuel tank." He pointed. "That should be this way."

"Go, go!" Montrose shouted.

A heavily armored squad of police moved in on Marcella's Joy from the area surrounding the dock, while another squad approached on a nimble launch. Encircled by rifle muzzles, Luca sank to his knees with his hands behind his head and signaled Bruno to do the same. He knew better than to say anything except for asking for his lawyer.

* * *

Lorenzo Nussbaum palmed his forehead. Young Luca was in it deep. He and Bruno had been caught with explosives. Not only that, several complainants had identified him and Bruno as part of a group of men who'd been using intimidation and assault to coerce them to abandon their homes. But the Don had given Lorenzo strict instructions to do whatever he could for Luca. That meant striking a deal and throwing someone under the bus, as long as that someone wasn't a Spinelli by blood. Nussbaum knew what he had to do, what he had to advise Luca to do.

* * *

Dino Mizzoli was annoyed but confident when he was arrested. The Spinelli family didn't like rats. In fact, word had already been put out to the population of the women's prison, that Lida was to be taken out, whenever the opportunity presented itself. Unfortunately, the Department of Corrections had anticipated that particular development and she was in a segregated population. But that just meant it was a long game. Sooner or later, she'd get what was coming to her, and the lesson would be renewed; rats are always exterminated. The first thing and only words he uttered were a request for Lorenzo Nussbaum. While he waited in his holding cell, an officer informed him that the consigliere had taken himself off Dino's case due to a conflict of interest. Dino's blood took on the chill of the metal mesh that surrounded him. He knew he had been betrayed.

* * *

As if in the grip of a dream, Cassidy Yates walked out of the prison gates to where Kate Beckett waited to take her back to the city. A sense of unreality gripped her even more strongly as she slid into the luxurious leather seat of the Castle family car. She turned to Kate. "You'll never know how grateful I am, but I don't understand how you did this."

"It wasn't just me," Kate explained. "I had a lot of help. Some of it I can tell you about and some of it I can't. But Dino Mizzoli will never see the light of day again. Ordering Ned Snelling's death is only one of the charges against him."

"How about the guy who actually killed Ned?" Cassidy asked.

"Not such a great story there," Kate admitted. "He got the charges against him reduced for giving up Mizzoli, but he'll still be an old man before he gets out of prison - if he ever does. He might have done better if he'd given the Feds someone besides Mizzoli, but the Spinelli family closed ranks. The Organized Crime Task Force and the RICO Commission still have their work cut out for them. But that's not your problem. I have a place for you to stay until you pick one for yourself. And there's a job waiting for you too. It's an order taking job like you had in prison, but at least now you'll be getting a livable wage for it. And it's a woman-owned business. The owner, Reba Hernandez, has been helping other women build decent lives for themselves for years. As soon as you prove what you can do, she'll start moving you up. So, do you want to go and get settled or stop someplace for some non-prison food? I know a joint with terrific burgers."

Cassidy exhaled and closed her eyes, glorying in the sun shining through the windshield onto her face. "Kate, right now a hamburger would be heaven."


	94. Chapter 94

Emergence

Chapter 94

After what had happened at his mother's wedding, Castle was hesitant to allow caterers into the loft. The Old Haunt was unavailable because it was hosting a double darts tournament. Young writers would have to pen their best literary barbs and then compete at throwing non-metaphorical pointed objects at a board. The highest combined score would win a month's worth of beer and fried pickles. With those two options off the table, Castle had rented a small ballroom for the evening, after thoroughly vetting the hotel's staff.

Kate gazed out at the dancers gyrating to the upbeat musical selections of a popular local DJ. The bartender at the open bar was efficiently providing beverages, alcoholic and otherwise and the buffet table overflowed with both sweet and savory offerings. "Babe, this is some party!"

"When you graduated from law school you said you wanted to save the celebration for when you passed the bar," Castle reminded her. "Well, you have, with flying colors and we both can do with a night of riotous living. Between your clerkship and my new series of books, neither one of us has had one in a while."

Hips swinging in time with the music, Lanie grabbed Kate's elbow. "Come on girl! You should get out there."

"Go ahead," Castle urged. "There's something I need to check on."

Castle approached a man seated at a table with Mira Goldstone. His leathery tan and the deep grooves in his face spoke of many years spent outside. "Is everything ready, Jacob?"

"Down to the ribbon on the door," Mira's companion replied.

"Great! Kate's position with Judge Perry finishes up at the end of the week, and I want her to know what's waiting for her."

"I think she knows that Rick," Mira interjected, "a lot of hard work. But she'll love every minute of it."

"Work is something Kate has never minded, even when it's been at its most frustrating, I just want her to have a great venue to pursue it."

"She will Rick," Jacob assured him. "And the place is just like you said you wanted, solid, high quality, but nothing fancy to scare off her clients."

Castle clapped his hands together. "Outstanding."

"Now that that's settled, get your _tuches_ out there and dance with your wife," Mira ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Castle agreed meekly.

"What were you talking to Mira about?" Kate asked.

"I just wanted to make sure the kosher dishes on the buffet met with her standards. They're fine. She was enjoying the pastrami."

"I would hope so. You chose the only hotel in town with both a kosher deli and a vegan restaurant. Then you twisted arms to have their food brought up here."

"No arm-twisting was necessary, just a flash of titanium, my credit card, that is. But it was worth it to make sure all our guests are comfortable."

"And how about you?" Kate asked. "You were hunched over your keyboard until the moment Mrs. Jenkins arrived to sit for Jo."

Castle recalled that he could have used a little more time to tame the paragraph that was stubbornly fighting him, but felt he'd get a better handle on it after some time away from the battle. Despite the rapid tempo of the music, he pulled Kate close, lightly kissing her hair. "Never been better."

* * *

"Did you have a good time?" Castle asked as he joined Kate in bed.

"It was a terrific get-together, Castle, but I thought we could have one now with a more restricted guest list."

"Just how restricted?" Castle murmured.

"Kate poked her hand beneath the waistband of his pajamas. I thought I'd invite him to come out and play. That is if he's up for it."

Rick could feel himself responding to her touch. "If he isn't, he will be very shortly."

"Babe, one thing neither one of you have ever been is short."

"Ah, one of the nicest things you have ever said about either of us." He pulled at the ribbon securing her negligée. "I can think of two luscious ladies who should join the fun, too."

"They may need a little encouragement of their own, Castle."

"And it would be my great pleasure to give them some." He circled a firming bud with his tongue before taking into his mouth. Kate drew in a sharp breath, and began to grind against his growing arousal. He turned his attention to the other impatient bud."

Kate swept her fingertips down the expanse of his back. "Babe, how about sucking on something a little lower?"

Castle's lungs raggedly pulled in air. "If you'll join in the feast."

Kate shifted position in wordless answer, her back arching as his tongue found the core of her desire. Writhing against sheets rapidly dampening with sweat, she took as much of him into the heated depths of her mouth as she could. The bedsprings protested, and the headboard slammed against the wall as their urgency surged. Kate pulled back as she tasted the tang of the first pearlescent drop on her tongue, the pressure within her striving toward eruption. The desperate cry of"Babe!" forced itself from her throat as she reversed position again and with a familiar grasp on his bum, pulled him into her intimate sheath. She tightened around him, wave after wave sweeping through her as she felt the spasm that signaled he'd scaled his own summit. They collapsed against each other, clinging tightly as the universe spun. As sleep descended on them, still in a tangled embrace, Rick whispered, "Best party ever."

* * *

"Castle, where are we going?" Kate demanded.

"I told you, it's a surprise," Castle responded for the third time on their short drive uptown.

"And you know I hate surprises," Kate groused.

"Well, you'll like this one," He assured her. He pulled into a parking lot and slipped a placard up against the front window.

"What's that for?" Kate asked.

"To show that you're paid up for a year."

"Paid up for what? Castle, where are we?"

Castle strode around the car and offered his hand as Kate stuck her leg out the passenger door. "All will be revealed in a moment." Castle led the way down the sidewalk to a nearby office building. Rather than hard edges of shiny steel and glass, it showed the grace of an earlier era, crafted in stone. He guided her into the vestibule, where they traversed a mosaic tile floor to reach an elevator framed and paneled in mahogany, rich with the patina of age. Castle pushed the button for the second floor.

The first thing Kate saw when the lift doors opened, was a huge purple bow affixed to the frosted glass of an office door. "Castle, what…?"

Castle placed one end of the ribbon into her hand. "Pull on it."

The bow released, revealing what was painted beneath, "Katherine Beckett, Attorney-at-Law, Women's Advocacy."

Kate ran her fingertips over the letters, "Oh, Castle!"

Rick handed her a key. "Of course, it's your office, so you can change anything you want, but I thought I'd at least have the basics ready for you."

Kate opened the door. The first thing she saw was a wooden desk, with simple lines and the scars of decades of use. Castle followed her gaze. "That belonged to Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She used it when she and Susan B. Anthony ran their paper together. I bid for it online from an auction hosted by the director who made _Girl Vampire_. I thought it would be appropriate to your passion. And the chair was used by Gloria Steinem when she first started working as a columnist. I figured you're both tall, so it might be a good fit. The drapes are insulated, eco-friendly, and they'll achieve a complete blackout if you want to catch a nap on the couch, which isn't historical, but it is cozy. I had shelves put in to hold your law books. I know you like to go the dead tree route sometimes, instead of searching for citations online. But the wi-fi reception is good, with a firewall as impenetrable as I could get, without going to Dad's old pals. Everything in the bathroom works, and it's been thoroughly disinfected."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Only you would add those last little details to an otherwise totally romantic description. I love it, Babe." Kate wrapped her arms around him and pressed a kiss to his lips. "And I love you even more for understanding what I needed to do and helping me get here."

Castle brushed an errant strand of hair her face and lightly caressed her cheek. "I'm sure the heroic exploits of Kate Beckett are just beginning."

Finis

Some you have been asking for a return to my AU story, Ian, which I ended shortly after Castle was canceled so that I could write the future history of the Castle family. Some of you have read that saga in Life Goes On, Distress from the Dungeons, and Life goes On 2. I love Ian, and I've always wanted to revisit his alternate universe. If you are not familiar with it, Rick had married Kyra. They had a son Ian. Kyra died of cancer when Ian was an infant. Although Ian is a talented artist and very perceptive, he is also learning disabled, particularly where reading is concerned. Castle's personality and attitudes have been shaped by both fighting to give Ian the best opportunities can, and also by the grief he suffered at Kyra's death. Of course, he ends up finding love again with Kate. For any more details, read the story. That might take you a while. It's 69 chapters. That still makes it shorter than this one. If you want, you could cheat a little and just read a few chapters at the end. So, tomorrow is the start of Ian 2. Thank you for staying with me while Kate (and Tim) emerged from darkness. Love, Sally.


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